A couple weeks ago I had eluded to the fact that we were headed out on a last-minute family adventure. Time has done nothing but speed up since then, and though I had planned on sharing our trip with you all a lot sooner than this, I really haven't found the time to do so until now. We managed to cram a whole lot into one day, so I'm going to divide it into a couple of posts, in an effort to keep my IMAGE-HEAVY blogging style within reason. 😉

---

---

The day started off bright and early, 6am. Wee man had woken up with a bit of a tummy ache, so I brought him to relieve himself, and sent him back to bed for a rest. He fell straight back to sleep, but I couldn't, so hubby and I decided to get up and get started on prepping things for the day. We got ourselves ready, and everything packed that we would need, and woke the kids at the very last second, popped them into their clothes for the day, and out to the car. They had no idea what was happening, just that we were "going on an adventure". We stopped at a drive thru to grab coffee and some breaky on our way to the ferry. When you're trying to do an over-and-back day, there's really no time to waste.

We parked the car in the lot at the ferry terminal, and walked on. We decided to hang out on the outside deck, and eat some breakfast while we waited for the vessel to get underway. It was then that we told the kids that we were headed to the big aquarium, and boy were they excited!

They also enjoyed staring down at all the creatures that were latched onto the posts at the dock.

Once we got moving, we headed inside for a bit of a wander. They checked out the little arcade, and the kids play area, then we all started getting a little stir crazy (the crossing takes about 95 min), and decided to head up to the sun deck, and check out the sights. We were just exiting the channel between all the small islands, into open water, when the winds get a little intense, but luckily there's a protected viewing area, with windows all around, and a bunch of seating. Of course, the kids needed to be as close to the front as possible, so they sat in the window for a good while, getting excited about the adventure we were on, and enjoying each other's company.

One of the major reasons we don't get off of the island very often is the exorbitant price of the damn ferry. Seriously, if you live on the island, I feel like there should be a one-way free ride, or at least a discounted rate. But there's not. Not on the big island, anyhow. And it stinks. So, one way to dodge such a hefty ticket price is to leave the car behind, and do the public transit thing. This adds to the amount of time it takes to get anywhere, but it also adds to the adventure, and when you're 3 and 5, any sort of different transportation is pretty exciting. After the ferry, we hopped onto an accordion bus, and they loved sitting in the middle of the accordion.

"Arrr!" practicing pirate faces

After transferring to a sky train, and another bus, we finally arrived at the aquarium. There's a big water feature along the front of the building, so of course the kids needed to make it interactive. 🤦 lol

"Look, I can touch the water!"

We got through the admission line, and headed in, and the kids were immediately enthralled.

They really enjoyed this little tank that they could climb under, and look up into. Mudskippers are pretty funny-looking on their own, but I was probably more amused by them than I should've been, since all I could think of was Muddy Mudskipper.

There was also a separate little wing, for the Amazon exhibit. They had a sloth hiding somewhere in the trees (we never found it), as well as a few monkeys, tortoises, loads of different birds, and several parrots, including this hyacinth macaw.

They also had a few small terrariums with snakes, and tarantulas, which wee man loved, and a whole corner with loads of bats. Unfortunately, those were all too dark to get any decent pictures.

When we came out of the Amazon wing, we wandered through and found this section. There was a tank with these little sea snakes, which I find so fascinating. What was really funny was this urchin that was in there with them... it was walking! I've never seen an urchin walk before, but it was wildly amusing, especially since it was headed straight for that little snake in the front of the tank. Wee man was doubling over in laughter, at the thought of the urchin trying to sneak up on the snake. I'm sorry to say I didn't grab a video of it, but you'll just have to use your imagination along with this photo. 😉

And right next to this was a larger tank full of little clown fish. OF COURSE little miss had to stop and gaze at "Nemo and Marlin, and all their family" for a good long while.

As we headed out of that section, and back toward the center of the building, we came across this giant tank with loads of different local (Pacific northwest) fish in it. There are stairs next to it, and you can even look in the top, from the second floor.

We pointed out a couple of halibut swimming near the top (which hubby has caught on a couple of fishing adventures in the past, and which the kids love to eat), and wee man got super excited about a big red sea star at the bottom.

We walked around the corner, and discovered this little nook. There was a young couple hanging out in there, enjoying a moment of solitude, but kids have no sense of personal space or privacy, so despite my best efforts, they climbed over the poor unsuspecting couple, to get a closer look. They willingly gave up the space to the two miniature dictators, and I gave them a very apologetic "Thank you!"

At this point we still had yet to explore all of the outside tanks, but decided it was time for some lunch first. The prices at the cafes inside the aquarium are quite hefty, but being that it is located in Stanley Park, it's really not far to go to find some other options. We headed out, through the field behind the aquarium, to a concession stand, grabbed some greasy deliciousness, and sat at one of the picnic tables for lunch al fresco.

bright sunshine makes it hard not to look grumpy 😅

The littles enjoyed hotdogs, I had a chicken burger, hubby had a cheeseburger, and we all enjoyed way too many onion rings.

Wee man had fun stripping the onion out of the ring, and pretending he was a bird eating worms.

And little miss washed everything down with a ketchup chaser. (🤢 I can't stand the stuff!)

Yes, my family is perfectly behaved, and just full of class. 😂

---

After lunch we headed back to the aquarium, to check out the outside exhibits, take one last look at each of the kids' favorite things, and then one last surprise we had up our sleeves. I'm going to include all of that in part 2, so be sure to check back for that soon!

It's been a long while since I've done a travel post, but I know that I enjoy reading through others' travel blogs, and I hope you all will enjoy these travel/adventure posts.

This also reminds me that I sort of dropped my travel blog series I had been doing last summer, of our adventures through western Canada, when we were visiting family, and doing some camping. I would love to get back to that and finish it off! Hopefully before this year's summer adventures begin! lol