Monday, February 21, 2011

Dallas trip

We went to Dallas this Sunday. We went to meet a friend and took the opportunity to go to the Dallas World Aquarium. It was very expensive, but soooo cool. We took over 200 photos. It was so hard to choose 20 or less to show. And the photos don't do the amazing animals and aquarium justice.

We loved the anteater. First thing we really saw when we walked in.

Then we turned turned around and realized we were in the rainforest.

You start to the top and slowly circle down 3 stories, maybe 4. We ended up under the water you see there.

There were birds and monkeys everywhere, but our favorite was the sloth. I walked right under him, nothing but leaves between us. He was slow, but in a deliberate way, not so slow you can't see me moving, way.

Hey big fellow, you can just stay right there.

They had several areas with bats. So cool to watch them fly around and move.

These mata mata turtles look so weird! I probably would miss it in the wild.

They had a tank of stingrays. They were so cool to watch. There was stingrays in other spots, but this was the only place I could get good photos.

Manatee! They are so big, it was amazing.

I loved the huge catfish. The whole tank was filled with huge fish.

I think my favorite was the coral reefs they had set up from 12 different countries. They had amazing sea anemones and fish and other life.

Kiss the fish, Kiss it! Yes, my husband was really saying that and Matthew was declining. The fish looked like it wanted a fish kiss.


They had several types of sea dragons. If I could have, they would have come home with me. I could have watched them for hours.

I don't know their name, but Phil says they are garden eels. In any case, they'd come up out of the sand and then hide again. You'd never know they were there.

This frog kept trying to climb up to Matthew's finger. They had all different colors of poison dart frogs.

They had another area where you walk through an arched walkway made of glass under an aquarium. Huge sharks and turtles swim by and over you. This sawfish loved attention and swam slow enough I could get his picture. I have a photo with a hammerhead headed straight for the boys.

This loggerhead sea turtle was massive!

We weren't sure what they were, but they looked like beautiful buzzards to us.

The last stop was the penguins. I love their feet! They are Black-footed penguins from the tip of South Africa, where the weather is similar to Dallas. Who would have thought it!

Hope you enjoyed a peek into our afternoon adventure. It was super hard to get great shots through water, plexiglass, and wire, but I think we pulled out some decent shots.

5 comments:

Mom said...

Your photos are great! What an awesome place to visit. Now I want to visit!!!

Auntie said...

Nice job shooting under difficult conditions! I believe that is a sawfish, really a member of the ray family. Elasmobranchs - cartilige not bone skeletons. Largetooth - 17-22 per side. Lost teeth don't grow back. But it looks and moves like a shark, so is usually in the shark tank. Your grandpa Russel had a dried bill/saw hung in his antique shop. Creepy, because the story was that they would saw open a ship and drown the people.
Some places are just to wonderful to pass by. Glad you went!

The author said...

Auntie, you were right, I corrected and added a few names in the post. Mom mentioned he had on in the shop, that is a creepy story. Not true I hope!

Auntie said...

Sawfish probably don't have a grudge against boats and people, so why bother sawing when there are lots of other things to eat. I love penguins and bats. Never saw a sea dragon before--had to look them up. Cool. Those fancy vultures look like they are first cousins to Guinea hens, don't they.

Angela said...

wow- I wish I could have stayed and went to the aquarium with you guys. I love the sea dragons and I agree that it would be cool to take them home- maybe some day.