Something Fishy’s Going On. . .

It was the granddaughter’s 8th birthday on the weekend, and to celebrate we took a trip to Ripley’s Aquarium, in Toronto. Being the smart people we are, we bought our tickets earlier in the week. And even though it tacked extra time onto the trip, we only drove as far as Oshawa and took the GO train into Toronto. It’s only a short walk from Union Station to the Aquarium.

There’s an amazing variety of fish, a lot of them quite ugly:

There were also some delicious looking crabs and lobsters:

One of my favorites was the sea anemones:

The aquarium features a moving walkway in a tunnel that winds its way through the heart of the giant tank where you have fish in front of you:

And stingrays above you:

And sharks all around you:

Unfortunately, I was unable to get a decent picture of my favorite sea creature, the seadragon. The plants in their habitat were too similar to them in appearance. Good for camouflage, I’m sure, but not so good for taking pictures. However, I was able to get some shots of their cousins, the seahorses:

The habitat for the jellyfish was floor to ceiling, and back lit by a colour changing light. It was really hard to get a decent picture of them though, because they tended to congregate at the bottom of their enclosure, and people were standing right up to the glass.

We finished up our tour at the shoreline, where you can belly up to the edge of the water and pat a ray. I’m not sure what the granddaughter’s favorite was, but I’m sure that ranked right up there. :-)

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that it was a fun day. The only thing that would have made it better is if we’d been able to go on a weekday, when it would be less crowded.