NC Aquarium

Our second day with Leigh Anne was spent down at the NC Aquarium. She lives about 45min away from the Aquarium at Atlantic Beach so we loaded up her mini van and headed down! When I was a kid we spent a lot of our summers at Atlantic Beach, but I hadn't been back in about 10 years.  I spent many a hot summer days down at this aquarium so it was so fun to see it as an adult.  Needless to say, they have made lots of changes over the years.

There were these frog statues all around the museum...Cameron had to climb on them all!

Stomping on tadpoles and watching river otters...

I really loved all the museum crew out and about, teaching the children all sorts of thing about the animals.  They got to pet turtles, sting rays, learn about penguin's beaks and feathers, and the skeletons of all kinds of fish.

The evolution of penguins...the evolution of the Kos...

The shark tank was the coolest!  Timo could have stood there for hours, just watching the sharks swim by.

Jellyfish tank...always fun.   And us trying to blending in like the fluke does...can you see us hiding in the jelly bellies??

This was a neat hands on exhibit...you could touch to feel how the fish skin feel and hear the sounds they make.

I really loved this aquarium...almost every exhibit was iterative or had a knowledgeable crew member there to teach and answer questions.  I think we'll make this an annual visit.

We stopped for a seafood lunch...but were so late, we got there just before they closed.  Luckily we had the whole restaurant to ourselves....mmm, hush puppies and fried shrimp! It was right on the water so lot's of action to watch.  I remember go fishing on this Captain Stacey boat when I was a kid.  It was so fun to see all the spots I used to run around growing up.  I must say, not much has changed...

A sign of a good day had by all!  Leigh Anne and I had a very quiet ride back to New Bern.  We bid our farewells and the twins and I headed back to Granny and Grandpas.