Being from the mountains of VA we have gotten used to some hot days in the lower 90's and cool nights in the 70's. Upon arriving at the beach we discovered that 94 at the beach seems a lot hotter than 94 at home. So after getting pretty hot on the USS North Carolina until around 1130 am we decided we should cool off a bit and get out of the sun for awhile...So our next stop would be the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher! We enjoyed the air conditioned displays inside featuring fish, crustaceans, birds and reptiles, before heading back outside to look at the animatronic dinosaurs on a fairly shaded walking path!
Outside the front door is a Dinosaur that kids can get their picture taken with and climb on top of before going into the aquarium...
The first section of the aquarium features inland creatures from the bullfrog pictured above....
...to the long nosed Gar fish...
...to a Bald Eagle that was rescued from the wild due to a wing injury...
...to American Alligators...
...even an albino Alligator....along with a few other types of fish, birds and tree frogs!
The next section of the aquarium focused on marine life...The first exhibit was all about sea turtles and how we can do our part to keep the beaches clean and free from holes so that they can have a greater chance of survival once hatching. The exhibit featured a 10 month old sea turtle and a display showing how small they are at hatching as well as an educational board.
The kids enjoyed petting starfish, horseshoe crabs and a few other sea creatures in a hands on exhibit not far from the sea turtles
Before heading downstairs to see even more sea creatures the girls took turns being a crab!
We saw a couple varieties of sharks, including the hammerhead, a sea turtle, and lots of different types of fish in the largest tank...
I especially liked the jellyfish...
...and the giant set of shark teeth!!!
We said "Hi!" to Dory and Nemo's family while we were there...hehehe
This guy here was pretty neat looking...
...and their lobsters were huge!
Another of my favorite sea creatures...the Sea Horse!
The last sea creature we visited before moving on to the dinosaurs was the sand shark...the kids were super excited to get to touch a real live shark!
Outside the aquarium is a snack shack, playground and walking path... Since we had a full day planned we went straight for the walking path. This is the first dinosaur that we came upon and where we discovered that they moved and made noise...
This is a mash-up of all the pictures I got of the dinosaurs...
Outside the aquarium is a snack shack, playground and walking path... Since we had a full day planned we went straight for the walking path. This is the first dinosaur that we came upon and where we discovered that they moved and made noise...
This is a mash-up of all the pictures I got of the dinosaurs...
...and this is the video I made of the dinosaurs as we passed by each of them!
We remembered our quarters and pennies when we went to the aquarium and we were able to get each of the kids a cheap souvenir @ 51 cents each :0)
The gift shop was a little more expensive, but since the kids had not gotten their NC state magnet yet I went ahead and let them get their new state magnets from the aquarium. I was pleasantly surprised that they had a nice assortment and each of the kids chose $4 magnets ((less than I paid at truck stops for some of the other states they have been to...)) So far the kids have been to TN, NC, VA, WV, OH, MI and IL and they have collected a magnet from each state! I have an awesome idea for how to display their magnets as their collections grow... now I just have to find the time and resources to make it happen!
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