Kelley had the brilliant idea for Mom, Kristin, herself and I to head down to Long Beach on my Birthday Eve to see the Aquarium of the Pacific. And it was quite a treat, with a wide variety of animals and top-notch exhibits. I'll do my best to share what we saw, but it turns out it's difficult to shoot fast-moving fish through glass in low light. (Note to self: get better at that!)
My whole life I've been fascinated by animals. And with my inability to swim, I wasn't sure I'd ever get the chance to explore the creatures that live in the depths of the ocean. But now that I've overcome my fear and gotten a taste of what's out there, I can't get enough. The aquarium was a great chance to be guaranteed to see an incredible variety of fish, and only made me more ready for my next adventure.
Life-size whale in the lobby:
Kelley gets a great shot of a sea lion:
Kristin likes it already!
The variety of fish was incredible, from the subtly-colored specimen:
To the brightly-color Copperband butterflyfish:
Yellow puffer fish:
Brilliantly-colored anemone:
Yellow tang:
And blue tang, with Percula clownfish and Ocellaris clownfish:
Pennant butterflyfish:
Clown triggerfish:
This was one of the most colorful shows in the whole place:
Incredible anemone:
Some of the setups were dark and dramatic. These fish were bigger than me!
A hawkfish and his friend...
A tiny garden eel. Saw these on my dive in Maui down at 70'!
There were several different kinds of rays:
They had a great range of jellies, too:
And a variety of sea horses, including the leafy sea dragon:
One tank contained an incredible variety of live coral:
Colorful anemone:
A sneaky scorpionfish:
A showy lionfish:
From the small shrimp...
To the giant spider crab. I first saw these at the Osaka aquarium. They're really enormous and slow moving, and they look like they're from another planet. (Delicious, though, I bet!)
A cow-nosed ray:
Can't wait to get in there and dive!!!
