Sea Life Aquarium

Today after church, we headed to Grapevine for a VIP pre-opening of the brand-new Sea Life Aquarium!

It officially opens on Tuesday, but annual pass holders got to preview it today ... and it was pretty cool!  We were hoping it would be less crowded now than later on when more people hear about it.  (Kendall loved the Vancouver Aquarium we went to last summer while we were in Canada ... and although we weren't expecting it to be like that one, we've been excited about getting one here ... it cost 15 million to build ... it's 45,000 square feet ... with more than 5,000 sea creatures in it, so we hoped it would be pretty decent!)  We'd decided to pre-buy annual passes earlier this summer ... Kendall is free until she turns 3, so we just needed 2 passes ... about 2 visits pays for the pass ... and I'm planning on taking Kendall during the weekdays periodically this summer (especially), as a fun, indoor, air conditioned and educational thing to do ... we'll definitely get our money's worth out of it.

We ate lunch at the mall and stood in line to get into the Aquarium ... apparently, several other families had the same idea about getting annual passes, so they were also invited to this VIP event, and we ended up waiting in line for 55 minutes before we got our annual passes all processed ... at least that part is finished so we'll just be able to go right in from now on.   Kendall did great in line ... she met Sharky, their mascot who walked around greeting all the visitors ... she told us "I scared" "Tendall scared" when she got up close to him ... but she still gave him a high-five.  Once he was gone, she decided she wanted to see him again ... and take a picture with him, but the line was moving so we didn't get another chance to do that ... maybe next time.  We did get a few pictures with their sea life walls while in line ...

We got inside ... everything was so nice, new & clean ... and there were fish everywhere!  Kendall ooooohhhed and aaaaawwwwed and wowwwed at everything ... she loved it all!  It was not crowded at all ... we barely saw any other people in there, so it was really nice to go at our own pace & check everything out ... letting Kendall just explore around with us & not worry about holding hands the whole time or being lost in the crowd.

They had several of these tanks set up where you could crawl under to look up under the glass bubble with fishes swimming right around you ... fun!  (Kendall is saying "Hi Daddy!" in this picture.)

We loved the 360 Underwater Ocean Tunnel ... it's one of the main attractions Sea Life Aquariums are known for ... it was really amazing!  We tried to get some good pictures in the tunnel, but you aren't allowed to use a flash, so some didn't turn out as good as we'd hoped ... but it was really cool to see the rays & sharks and other fish swimming right over you.

We checked out the Interactive Rockpool ... getting to touch starfish, coral & sea urchin ... and seeing shrimp & crabs up close in the touch pool.  Kendall loves to play in water, so she really loved this attraction!  She'd been asking to "swim in there" and "open" the tanks most of the time we were there, so this was perfect for her!

They even have a little playscape inside ... and Kendall enjoyed playing in that, too!

The only attraction that wasn't open for us was the "Shark Walk" ... we will be returning soon for another visit and to check that out!  All in all, it was a fun family outing for the afternoon.