We left Durham, North Carolina early in the morning to avoid the heat. After yesterday’s horrific car trip and enjoyable visit to the Duke Lemur Center, we were on our way to Virginia.
We drove through the countryside, with rolling hills and picturesque fields. Rain kept the day cool and fresh, a much more enjoyable ride. We saw crops of low plants with round leaves around a tall stem. Peanuts? Tobacco? A yellow school bus passed us, loaded with watermelons. We went through a cool tunnel.
While we were on the road I purchased tickets for the aquarium- it was $65 (which includes the separate fee for parking) for the two of us.
The Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center consists of two buildings with a walkway in between. It overlooks a body of water that we thought was a river- on the map it is labeled Lake Rudee and leads out to the ocean. The Aquarium offers dolphin watch boat tours and a treetop challenge experience called the adventure park.
The exhibits were wonderful, with lots of themed ambiance and detail. Daughter wasn’t as thrilled with the moody lighting with her camera. She was interested in the back stories of the sea turtles after previously working with rehabilitated turtles. There was a ray touch tank, a bubble to view a Komodo dragon, and a tunnel to walk through while sharks swam overhead. We had lunch in the cafe (Daughter somehow got free potato salad by flustering the staff with a question.) Then we walked the path to the other building.
They are adding more to this so a section was blocked off, but the area was already large. We looked down at tiny crabs running around in the mud, and walked to an observation tower and climbed up for a great view. Then we continued on, past the rope courses (it looked like an Ewok village). The other building had otters (love) and a large jelly fish exhibit. They had something really unique, a jellyfish touch tank. Yes, jelly fish sting. No, it’s not extreme. No, I didn’t test that. I asked my daughter if she wanted to be in charge of a jelly fish touch tank.
“I make children cry every day.” said the attendant, totally deadpan. I learned something new- jelly fish eat other jelly fish, and the ones in the touch tank are basically feeders. Sea turtles eat jelly fish too, but they were not being sent over to them, instead staying in the jelly fish area. They had a new display under construction, called superpowers. I was sad that the octopus wasn’t there yet. They had a huge play area for kids.
On the way back to the car we were able to see wild children navigating through the trees- it looked like a lot of fun. We clambered back into the hot car and drove on to Winchester, Virginia. We got snarled in traffic for a long time, but finally arrived at my sister-in-law’s house. The next day we were going on to the National Zoo in Washington DC (after visiting grandma).
I love all these signs!
