Houston Aquarium

Today we ventured over to the Houston Aquarium. It's been on the 'to do' list for awhile now and today seemed like the perfect day to cross it off the list. Brian and I were both a bit underwhelmed, and although they did have a few nice aquarium exhibits, I guess we were just expecting a little bit more. Oh well, it was a good air-conditioned way to kill an hour or so.

We had to laugh at Madeline's reactions to the exhibits. She usually loves fish, so we were surprised when she was just 'ho-hum' about the exhibits, as evidenced by this photo:

I was able to snap at least one good photo of her showing a bit of engagement:


Brian and I also found the trip to be an insightful peek into her fears. It is funny to watch kids and the things they choose to be fearful of. There was this exhibit where you could touch stingrays; most of them were small, ranging in size from a salad plate to a dinner plate. Madeline had her hand in the water and every time one would swim by she would yank her hand out and do this little quiver in fear thing. The groupers, however, which are nearly 10-times her size were just fascinating to her. No worries there! Then, the shocker was her reaction to the tigers--she really came to life at the white tiger exhibit (yeah, we weren't really sure about what a tiger exhibit was doing at the aquarium either!) You would think that these huge animals would elicit fear in just about anyone, especially when they were jumping at the ceiling and pawing at the glass. But not Madeline....this is what she thought of the tigers.....

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I guess they were just like big kitty cats to her! She had so much fun and kept saying 'Tiger silly!" in between her giggles!

It was a good way to break-up the day, but I'm not sure we'll be returning any time soon!