The Aquarium

This past Monday, Adam and I took advantage of our day off of work for President's Day and took James to the National Aquarium in Baltimore.  We have been wanting to take him for some time, but the aquarium doesn't allow strollers and we wanted to make sure that he could handle the walking.  Well, he COULD have handled the walking, but was a bit shy with such a crowd.  He walked a good bit, but also asked Adam to carry him a good bit too.  I had Logan in our Ergo baby carrier, so I got out of carrying the big boy!
We had a great time, but also learned a few things to keep in mind for our next trip.  One of those was not to take the Light Rail into the city, as it broke down for 45 minutes.  We also forgot to buy tickets online before we left the house, so we had to wait for our entry time.  Luckily, the ticket guy saw us waiting and let us in early.
The exhibits at the aquarium are great, we saw the Atlantic Coast, Rain Forest, and Jelly Fish, as well as the dolphins.  There is a 4D film that is also being shown right now, but we decided that James probably wouldn't sit through the whole thing.  I was a little disappointed that there is no longer a set time for the dolphin show, just times to watch their training and enrichment.  The dolphins were always my favorite as a kid, but at least we got to see them for a little while.
I was kind of amazed at the people at the aquarium though.  There were more people than I expected (which was silly, we thought going on a holiday would mean less people, but everyone thought that) and I was surprised at how pushy they got.  I suppose I should have expected that, but I always make such an effort to teach James to be polite and not run into people that I thought maybe others did as well? Silly me, having so much faith in the general public!  Another little pet peeve I had was everyone with their cameras/cell phones. There is no flash photography allowed, but everyone was snapping away on their phones with their flashes going off left and right.  Do you really need to facebook a blurry picture of a puffin?  Does Great Aunt Susie care about the tree frogs you saw?  Really?  I love to document things too, but in the end I was glad that I decided not to bring the camera and just enjoy the memories we were making.
Overall, it was a wonderful day and I'm glad we kept James home from daycare to go.  He has adjusted so well to being a big brother and he definitely deserved a fun day.  I can't wait until the weather gets warmer and we can go to the zoo.