Our second vacation day trip was to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach.

We had never been before because it’s insanely expensive, but for our first vacation in years we decided that cost be damned we were going to the Aquarium! And we were going to have fun…damn it! And we did. Mostly.

For some reason I was feeling mildly nauseous all day (Nope, I’m not even pregnant). And we were pretty exhausted from the previous day’s adventure and continued chasing of our super high energy preschooler, and then there were the crowds.

I didn’t mention it in yesterday’s post, but the museum was pretty crowded, it was full of roaming masses of summer campers in matching neon colored t-shirts. We decided we should make our own Making Me Cranky family t-shirts for our future outings. And there were a ton of families who, like us, decided to wait until the very end of the summer, specifically the week before a lot of school districts in the L.A. area started up for the fall. It was really genius timing on our part.

The Aquarium was the same, although I didn’t notice quite as many summer campers, but there were tons of families. It was kind of a mob scene.

You may notice all of the very close-up shots of Eleanor in this post. That wasn’t just an artistic decision on my part, it was mainly because there was no room to step any farther from her and when I did someone would immediately step right up between us.

What I also failed to mention yesterday is what it is like to go on one of these outings with Eleanor. It basically feels like you’re stuck in a pinball machine rapidly pinging from one exhibit to the next. There are only a few seconds to look at each before sprinting off to the next one. It’s excellent cardio, but endlessly tiring.

And don’t even think about lingering at an exhibit. She will leave you behind. And she is fast! If you don’t stay close to her in a crowd she will disappear. So, Josh and I didn’t really get to spend time looking at anything we really wanted to see. But I guess that’s just how it goes when you’re a parent. You don’t really get to do these things for yourself anymore it’s all about watching the little ones enjoy it. And it’s actually kinda great.

They have this awesome pool of rays that you can pet:

Eleanor kept putting her hand in but then pulling it out as soon as one got close.

They are kinda creepy looking.

But they feel like wet velvet.

And that was the aquarium! Pretty fun, but it’s so expensive that I think it will be quite a while before we go back.

Up next, Josh and my romantic anniversary get-away!