August 2, 2008 - Aquarium fun

The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk was beautiful. Sean and I took the kids there because Ronin is obsessed with the Ocean book I got him. He also loves Diego and seems enamored of sea turtles and dolphins and now rainforests. We got there in under an hour and most of the trip was spent on US7 going south. We passed a lot of towns in CT that were established in the 1700 and 1800’s. Ronin was great the entire way and so excited to go to the Aquarium.

Once we got there Ronin could barely contain himself. We saw the seals being fed and ran around after them both inside and outside. Sean and Ronin touched cow-nosed sting rays in a pool. Ronin kept telling us how he was (“all wet on the hands!”). Ronin also saw a white alligator (1 of 44 in the world.) Ronin played in their play gym (as did Autumn who loved the mats) and Ronin investigated the African exhibit that was (“very dark and scary.”) Ronin made sure that “baby almond” was always around and could see the various fishes in the tanks. He loved the poisonous frog exhibit and liked placing the step-stool under the tanks so he could step up and see (“I want to see!”). He loved to the press the button on the barking frogs exhibit and pretended he was a frog by jumping and barking (“See mommy Ronin is a frog. Jump, I’m jumping Mommy. Ribbit Ribbit.) At the end Autumn and I got lost in a long dark room that housed various sea turtles, string rays and jelly fish. Ronin loved the 240 lbs sea turtle and asked him (“Come play with me turtle. I be gentle.”) Ronin also liked how the jelly fish glowed in the dark. (“like stars!”) We took tons of pictures and had to drag the kids out of there. On the way home Ronin exclaimed, “Ronin is HUNGRY. I need a hot dog.!” So we pulled out in Branchville at Dexter’s Dogs and Sean and Ronin had hot dogs and French fries on a picnic bench and mommy and Autumn stayed in the car because Autumn had finally cried herself to sleep.

After we retuned home from the Aquarium Ronin told us how much fun he had (Mommy, I had a lot of fun!”) and decided we might look into a membership as it would be more cost effective! Ronin told all his friends at school about the Aquarium and the turtles we saw.