We started out at the ocean exhibit, which none of us had ever seen before. It was one of the best parts of the zoo! Adelynne enjoyed every part of it. When you first walk in, there is a tank with some bonnethead sharks swimming around in, and next to that is the coral reef tank. There was lots of colorful fish and sea life for Adelynne and Amy to admire. We were standing there admiring when Adelynne shouted, "Look! There's broccoli." I thought she was looking at something that looked like broccoli, but when I took a second look...
sure enough, there was a head of broccoli. Apparently the broccoli acts as a plant that fish would graze on in the ocean. After that first head of broccoli, we continued to see broccoli in all of the other fish tanks.
The eels in the coral reef tank looked almost fake, slightly robotic, but they were pretty neat to watch. When I pointed them out to Adelynne she wimpered and then took a step back in fear. If I ran into one of those on a dive I'd probably freak out a little too.
After the coral reef tanks we walked down a ramp into a shark petting area. The zoo has a big pool filled with dog sharks that you can pet. The water was pretty cold, but Dustin and I petted a few sharks to show Adelynne that it was okay. She mostly just watched the sharks, but later in the day before leaving the zoo, we went back and Adelynne was petting as many sharks as she could, and even Amy was trying to as well.
After we left the shark pools we ran into a few more tanks. Adelynne excitedly pointed out the sea horse tank.
Then on past that, we came across the penguin exhibit which ran along opposite sides of the hallway, and then it had a window on the floor so that you could watch the penguins swim in the water under your feet.
Before the penguins is the indoor, under-water tank for the seals. It sure is neat to watch the animals swim. Their bodies are so graceful and majestic, I love this world with all of its variety of animals that was created by our loving Father in Heaven!
The ocean exhibit was a lot of fun to be in, I would have been happy with just walking through that. But of course their was much more to see. We didn't see the polar bear our first time at his exhibit, but when we went back later he was awake.
One of my favorite animals that we got to see was the walrus. We first went to the under-water viewing and right away we saw a walrus. She was right up against the glass and there were many people taking pictures of her, including myself.
As I was taking pictures of this walrus I noticed that the other walrus was out in the water as well. I stepped up to the window to see if I could see him. I was trying to get a picture of his head, but then I gave up, and when I stepped off the windowsill I was startled by this:
She had moved right over to me and I didn't even notice her, and I even gave out a little scream because it scared me a little. I was literally face to face with her! Then I laughed at myself and snapped a picture. Adelynne wondered why I screamed and I laughed as I told her that the walrus scared mommy. She gave a little laugh too. When we went up to the top viewing area for the walrus, we watched as one walrus would climb out of the water and then splash backwards into the water onto the other walrus, then the second walrus did the same thing to the first one. They sure did give us a show, and they were so fun to watch.
We had tickets to see the dolphin show (included in admission cost), we thought the girls would enjoy seeing the dolphins dancing and jumping-we were right. Amy was quite captivated by it all, and the only thing that disappointed Adelynne was that we didn't sit close enough for her to get splashed. The show was a narrated story about a girl that became a recycling hero. The dolphins did tricks choreographed to different songs.
These are pictures taken before the dolphin show began, so the girls were dancing to some music and just being cute.
Here's some videos at the dolphin show of the girls dancing, watching the show, and the dolphins.
