Baltimore Aquarium

This past week, Brent had 3 days off in a row. So, we decided to do an impromptu visit to the Baltimore Aquarium where we have a membership. What a day! I wish every outing was so much fun. When we arrived, we quickly hurried upstairs to watch the volunteers feed the fish. No one else was there and one very nice volunteer (who, it turns out, Brent knows from work) gave the kids (and me!) a container of peas to feed the fish! Nothing like hands on! While some of the divers went under water, a very sweet lady diver(Nikki)who wasn't diving that day, started chatting with us and walked around with us showing us MANY different kinds of fish. She stuck with us for almost an hour! She pointed out tons of different kinds of fish and told of their personalities and markings.
And, she had us get front row seats to see the divers pole feeding an eel that was new to the tank. That was very cool! Apparantly it has a very dirty mouth, so a bite could actually be deadly because of the icky bacteria in it's mouth. The eel was beautiful and reminded me of a ribbon twirler in gymastics! The divers had to feed it at arms length with a pole so they didn't get too close.
The most impressive part of this whole time was the barrage of inteligent questions from Cait, Grant, and Jake. They were 100% engaged in Nikki's information and asked so many questions she couldn't keep up- and didn't know the answers to some! I was so proud of their thoughtfullness and interest. And, they were very respectful in the way they asked, too! I was a very happy momma!
We saw the dolphin show after that, and had the kids pull out their nature journals. We don't do too good keeping up with them, but the Aquarium was perfect for adding lots of new entries.
On the way out of the show we stopped for a few minutes at the frog exhibit, but actually got to see and touch a horseshoe crab and some kind of creature inside a conch shell... wish I could remember.... (come on Apologia Elem Swimming Creatures book!!!LOL!) Then they all were given a mussel shell to take home.
Off to lunch- unfortunately the closest place to eat was Hard Rock Cafe- which I hate. Icky atmosphere and WAY expensive menu! Oh well, it was cold and we weren't walking far!

Back inside, we parked ourselves on the floor next to the shark exhibit and drew sketches of different sharks. Even I got a chance to do one!
Then, we went downstairs and saw the sting rays get fed. Right up to the glass! We spent a long time making drawings, writing information and loving all of it! I really enjoyed marveling over the immense diversity of God's creation throughout the whole aquarium. He has such creativity and imagination!
By the time we left, we were happily exhausted! It was a full day but so full of learning and exploration. I wish I could homeschool like this every day! This was learning at it's best.