A Fishy Situation

I usually do not post about local activities or solely regionally-focused events, as the intended audience is a bit broader than that. But, when we woke up this past Saturday and our beautiful final pool-day plans were thwarted by 60 degree weather, our back-up trip to the Maritime Aquarium in Norwalk, Connecticut was a delight worth sharing.

Indeed, I was not ready for fall weather this weekend. Our bags were packed with bathing suits and floaties, sandals, shorts, and the like. I was a bit disappointed by the chill in the air, especially since my kids do not start school until NEXT week, and I am still trying to hold on to a few more days of warm weather activities. When I stepped outside Saturday morning, my first inclination was to throw everyone in the car and head to the Westchester mall – a short drive from my in-laws and a reasonable second best activity to swimming, in my opinion. My husband had other plans that did not involve excessive shopping on my part. Acknowledging that I could just online shop on the way to the aquarium, I settled on his suggestion.

Twenty minutes later, we had two kids dressed, peed (of course) and out the door. It is usually a good sign when you ONLY have to threaten your kids two or three times ‘that they will not be going to see whales and sharks,’ if they do not get in the car.

The aquarium itself is large, but the space is bright and friendly, easy to navigate and best of all, free under three. The interactive activities were the highlight of our trip, including the Ray Touch Pool, that allowed you to interact with sting rays, jellyfish and small sharks. My children were also thrilled to pet crabs, and seemingly enter the meerkat home through a tunnel and small glass dome.

During our trip, we also watched a seal feeding, examined the interior of a whale, created our own digital aquatic animals, played on a small fishing boat, pet a dragon, and examined tons and tons of fish and other sea creatures. It was a nice alternative to the adorable, but dark and smelly penguin exhibit at the Central Park Zoo – which my children love.

We also stopped about five times to go to the bathroom, and found the only tanker truck in the gift shop for Brody.

It was also insanely easy to get to with tons of parking directly across the street, an outdoor play space. and an IMAX theater if you have more patience and perseverance that we do.

Is it weird that we stopped for fish and chips at Mama’s Boy across the street after?