National Aquarium in Baltimore
Last week, we took the kids to Baltimore for my post-op appointment at Johns Hopkins. We were able to stay right next door at the McElderry House, small business that provides affordable lodging for families of Hopkins patients in the neighborhoods adjacent to the East Baltimore hospital complex. Everything checked out fine, the stitches that completely block off my ear were removed and the implant in my skull for the hearing device is healing nicely (See this post if you want to know more about my ear dramas and crazy symptoms, “I’m Going Deaf Today… Single Sided Deafness, That Is“.
Hubby and I decided to make the most of being in Baltimore so we took the kids to the National Aquarium at the inner harbor in Baltimore. It hosts more than 16,000 animals representing 660 different species. We all had a fantastic time! Here are some of our photos from the day. (The girls took turns with the camera, so I have to give them credit for some of these pictures as well!)
The National Aquarium is located along the inner harbor. There are potentially lots of other things to do there as well — the science museum, paddle boats, shopping, a huge selection of restaurants. Our time was limited, so we just visited the aquarium (for 4 1/2 hours).
This is a Green Sea Turtle named Calypso. It weighs around 500 pounds and its shell is as long as my daughters are tall (3 1/2 feet)! It is huge!
DD took over the camera in the shark display area! This is a picture she took of the sawfish. The rostrum, snout or saw area, has between 14-23 teeth protruding from it. Largetooth sawfish eat small fish, prawns, and other crustaceans.
We all loved the rain forest display and spent a lot of time look at all the creatures!
This guy looks menacing, doesn’t he?!
The poison dart frogs come in a wide variety of colors. We were surprised that the most toxic frog of all was the white one you see in the picture below, not the bright yellow or blue frogs. It is called the Terrible Poison Dart Frog and its skin secretions were traditionally used to poison blow darts.
The kids loved the dolphin show:
And my favorite was the jellyfish display! Relatives of today’s jellies swam in Earth’s oceans over 600 million years ago. Jellies have seen the dawn of fishes, the extinction of the dinosaurs, the ice age and the arrival of humans.
On a personal note, this day was phenomenal for me because I spent the last ten months barely able to leave the house (due to my crazy ear symptoms: intense sensitivity to noise, balance issues, and vision problems (everything would go blurry when I turned my head)). I can’t even begin to tell you how great it was to be able to get out and about again!!!! Hooray!!
