Aquarium of the Bay

This little aquarium/museum is out on Fisherman's Warf, in the very touristy part of town. We've never been for that reason alone...parking is expensive and crowds. But it's low season here in SF for tourist and the aquarium was offering free admission to SF residence...so I figured, what the heck, it's free, let's give it a try. We headed down there with our buddies Caleb and Anjalie last Monday. It just so happened that it was Anjalie's birthday that day, so we had double the reason to get out and celebrate!
The Aquarium of the Bay's main attractions are these "underwater tunnels", where you can walk "under the bay" and see all the marine life. (giant walkways with aquariums built around them) Well, let's just say it was neat but I'm glad we didn't pay to get in. I didn't get any pictures of the tunnels because Cameron got completely scarred half way through the first one. I had to carry her the whole way, her head buried in my shoulder while I sang "you are my sunshine" to distract her. And the way the tunnels are set up, you have to go through them to get out, you can't back track. So needless to say, we hurried through that part and got to the really fun area...the petting pools!
One pool had starfish, sea urchins, mussels, etc and the other had sting rays and tiger sharks. Timo was fearless when it cam to the stingrays and sharks...he was petting them like they were cats and dogs! The sting rays actually came all the way up to the surface so they were easy to reach but the sharks where deeper and Timo had to stretch way down for a feel. I asked him how they felt and he said "wet...and soft"
There were lots of other activites by the pools as well...like puzzles(Cameron spent her time putting them all together) and a big microscope hooked up to a TV for viewing( Timo spent his time putting everything he could find under the lens).
Spinning the spiderweb required all their little hands...
They even got to pet a turtle and see him in his natural habitat...Cameron took a specail liking to Mr. Turtle.

After the morning spent at the aquarium we went out to lunch for Angalie's birthday...Bubba Gump's (told you it was touristy). But like I said, the chain restaurants have it going on for the kiddos...crayons, activity books, their lunch came in a cardboard boat and blue jello..what more could a toddler want!! And, the best part, was sitting by the window and watching all the boats go by. Happy Birthday Angalie!!


**side note**
I don't think we'll be going back to the aquarium anytime soon, even if it is free. The main turn off for me was having to walk through, not one, but two gift shops to get to the main entrance and then again to get back out. I'm sure it's fine if you have a child that can walk past hundreds of toys/games/stuffed sharks and not be phased...but for my two year olds, it was just too much. We caused quite a scene trying to leave, which ended in me carrying a screaming boy in a football hold out of door with another crying child at my heels. Clearly the museum was only thinking about making money...sooo not cool in my opinion. You can have a gift shop but put it off to the side where you can CHOOSE to go in...Ugh.

OK.

I'll get off my soapbox now...