Aquarium of the Pacific, Long Beach, CA

As an end of summer family activity we decided to take the kids to the Aquarium of the Pacific for the first time. We went Labor Day weekend. It was very hot out but we managed to take it easy and see almost all of what the aquarium had to offer for us to see.

                                                                 The Pacific Sea Horse.

                 Watching the seals and sea lions through an aquarium tunnel was Ava's favorite.

                               At the touchpool you can gently feel bat rays or shovelnose guitarfish.

Charlotte and I would rather watch the bat rays than touch them. We've touched them once before and that was good enough.

    After checking out the bat rays with Ryan for 15 min or so Ava wanted to try to touch one.

                                                                   Moon Jelly Fish

There is a large walk-in aviary where aquarium guests can enjoy the lorikeet birds. For $3.00 you can purchase a small cup of nectar for the birds to drink. We watched a few different people feed the birds and they seemed pretty tame. Ava loves birds and asked to feed them after watching two other sisters feed them. It was a lot of fun watching the birds carefully approach Ava and climb onto her arm and drink from the cup. She got to feed 3 or 4 different birds while we were in the aviary.

                                                                 Sea star touchpool.

                                                                 Tropical reef habitat.

                                                             Olive Ridley Sea Turtle

Look very carefully and you may see some Leafy sea dragons or Weedy sea dragons. They kind of look like sea horses that camouflage with seaweed beds and seagrasses.

We left the aquarium by 5:00PM. The girls got a snack and drink but fell asleep before we even got on the freeway. They slept for over two hours straight afterward. It was a full and great day at the aquarium.