The National Aquarium

While we were in Washington, D.C., I took the kids to the National Aquarium.  We arrived about an hour before closing time, and I was surprised when we finished seeing everything with time to spare.  And not because there isn't a ton to see, either.

There are so many fish and snakes and turtles and frogs and alligators and other really great things at the National Aquarium.  It's just really small.  The whole thing is probably no bigger than my house.  But unlike my house, there are aquariums jam packed in there.  Everywhere you look, there is another one.  Or two.  That means that there isn't a lot of walking between the fish, so you can see everything very quickly.

The boys loved it.  Lex spent the entire time looking for Nemo.  When we bought our tickets, he asked the lady at the desk if Nemo was there, and she informed him that Nemo and Dory were in two of the many tanks.

Connor spent the entire time running around and yelling about the alligators, or spiky fish, or scary snakes.  "AAAAAHHHH!"  But it was okay, because we were the only ones there.  I guess the National Aquarium isn't really hopping at 4 pm on a Monday.  But it was good for us.

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Moon Jellies 

I still love jellyfish.  And I still maintain that if I was ever filthy rich, and had more money than I could possibly spend, I would spend some of it to install jellyfish tanks into the walls of a room in my home and then pay someone to take care of my jellyfish.  Then, I would call it The Jellyfish Room, and I would probably put comfy exotic couches in there and a chandelier and crazy lighting.  Kevin would probably want to put a bar in there, too.  But I digress.

 

Connor.  And some fish.

AAAAAHHH! Alligators!

Yeah, they were pretty small, but there were a bunch of them.

I love how colorful everything is.

Purple fuzzy starfish. 

This aquarium had so so many starfish. More than I had ever seen collected in one place. And when you see a bunch all together you notice that they come in all sizes, colors and textures.  The purple fuzzy ones are my favorite, although the neon orange and pink ones were nice, too.

Nautilus.

I have never seen a nautilus before, and here was a huge tank with like a dozen of them. They are so weird looking. Like a squid shoved into a shell, with tons of face tentacles. And they don't really swim in a traditional sense, but they can move. And fast. It's like magic. They just zoom around.  They were pretty big, too.

Yes, I was impressed by the Nautilus.

Electric Eel 

Connor was most impressed by the electric eel. He is still telling everyone he sees that he saw an electric eel when we went to Washington, D.C. 

Family and friends will say, "Oh, Connor, you went to Washington, D.C. How cool! What did you see there?" And you know they expect him to tell them about the White House or the Smithsonian or the Washington Monument. And he tells them about this eel instead, and they always look confused. I love that kid.

Tiny blue frog. Poisonous, too.

Look! It's Nemo! And Dory! Lex was so excited! 

When we went to the gift shop before we left, Lex picked out little tiny plastic fish like these to take home.  He takes really good care of wittle teeny baby Nemo so that he doesn't get lost.  I love that kid.

This is the other thing that really impressed me, even though it didn't photograph well.

It's a huge octopus. You can see that it is kind of a mottled purple color, and it's tentacles were huge! The whole thing was much bigger than I was, but it was very timid. It was in a dark tank, and it was trying to hide behind a bunch of rocks. It looked so soft and undulating.  It was definitely one of the coolest things I've ever seen in an aquarium.

So, the National Aquarium, while not huge, is jam packed with just about every type of fish you can have.  And since it is small, it is easy to see everything.  We liked it.