Shedd Aqaurium

Last Sunday James, Chris, Becky and I headed over to Shedd Aqaurium. I haven't been there since I was like 13. Overall it was very nice and we all had a good time. James like the aquarium more than the MSI, and It was nice to hang out with my brother.

We got into the aquarium for free (since I am an employee at AIC) but had to pay the ridiculusly high fee of 15 dollars (beyond admission) to see the entire aqaurium. If we just got in for free we could only see the things on the first level, which didn't include the dolphins, Beluga whales, the ever entertaining Penguins, the sharks and more. Basically all you get with general admission is the permenant aqurium exhibits upstairs. That includes the Amazon display, the waters of the world, the Invasive species, the Caribean reef, and other little things like frogs/seahorses/jelly fish.

Anyway our first stop was the Caribean reef right when you come in, because they were feeding the hungry fish and answering questions right when we got there. It was cool, especially the poor sea turtly who was in there because a motorboat propellor cut into his shell almost to the spine, poor guy.

Next stop was the Amazon display, we saw some weird fish, and lizards, and snakes. Then we headed downstairs for lunch and after that we went to the Oceanaium. We stake out seats about 15 minuets ahead of time for the Dolphin show, which was almost worth the 15 bucks. The 5 dolphins were so cute though, I wish I could take them home, but I doubt the cats woudl appreciate that. Anyway the show was neat, dolphins are so smart they do anything for fish.

Next we went underneith the Oceanarium to watch the the dophins from below, and check out the other animals down there. The best were the Penguins. Man there were a lot of penguins and they were so interesting. Some just stood there and slept while standing up, others were swimming around, and they can swim fast! But the most entertaining were the two that looked like they were mating, and the one that had the biggest and longest poop I had every seen. Very entertaining.

Next up was the Wild reef exhibit, and the Sharks. This wasn't as cool as I thought it would be and the sharks were small sharks, the ones at the baltimore aqairum were much better.

Then we headed back up to the main level and checked out the rest of the permenant exhibits. James loved the frongs of course, and the jelly fish were cool. I like the invasive species, they showed the crazy japanese carp on video and they were litterally jumping out of the water hitting people in boats. totally crazy.

Then on to the lizards. We saw the large Komodo dragon, and some other lizards, but by then were all exhausted. so we browsed the gift shop, came home made dinner and called it a day.