LONG BEACH AQUARIUM

Summer is almost at an end and the kids will be going back to school soon. So, we decided to do as much as we could to enjoy the summer days, see new things and just have fun.

Today, we (my sister, Maureen, my great niece, Trinity, her friend, Jesse and I) decided to go to Long Beach to the Aquarium.


Our first stop, once inside, was to the Sting Ray tank. These were little guys that had the stingers removed. You can reach into the tank and pet them if you like.

I don't know what came over me but, I stuck my hand in the water and pet one. They are slimy feeling. Kind of gave me the creeps.

There are lots and lots of very big tanks filled with every kind of fish in the sea.

Since I've never gone scuba diving, I always find the beautiful colors of the fish to be amazing.

I loved how the sun rays were shinning down into this tank, just as it would do in the ocean.

This tank had hundreds of sand dollars. It was strange to see them all standing on their sides.

Did you know that sand dollars are purple? Not like the white ones that are dried out. Plus there are millions of little hair like things on the under side that allows them to walk along the sea.

I learned several things today.

One was that many kinds of sharks lay these hard egg like sacks. They attach a sticky substance to them and they stick to an area of the sea that the mother picks out.

She leaves the egg sack there and swims away. She never sees her new born babies. They hatch when ready and are own their own to defend themselves from the second they are born.

In the picture above you can see the egg sack. A hole has been cut out and you can actually see the tiny shark attached to the yolk sack inside. It was moving around when we were there.

There is a membrane inside the egg shell so the baby was still protected inside.

We loved the seals. They are so cute.

There is a park like area outside. The kids can push buttons on some of the items and they squirt water. Sort of like giant squirt guns.

We went to the children's show. They ask for volunteers to come up and they put on a short little play. It was cute.

These guys reminded me of big spiders.

Look at some of pretty colors that Mother Nature has given these pretty sea creatures.

You could touch these too. I didn't do it this time. I learned the first time not to stick my hand in the tanks. LOL.

This is a very big jar of Octopus eggs. The are only about the size of a piece of rice.

The female lays this big batch of eggs and the male swims over and fertilizes them. Not many actually get fertilized though.

After the female lays the eggs she dies. Females only lay one batch of eggs in her life time.

Octopus only live about 3-5 years.

My favorite things to watch were the jelly fish. They are beautiful.

There are many many different types of jelly fish. Some big, some small.

Some colorful, some clear.

These look like ghosts to me.

I could have watched them for hours. The way they float and swim around is so peaceful to watch.

How can something so lovely and pretty be so harmful? I don't know, but they are.

Some will just sting you causing you pain. Others will sting you and you can die from the poison.

Here is another, much larger Sting Ray.

I couldn't help but thing about the Crocodile Hunter. They say that most of the time Sting Rays are gentle and like to play. Yet, they do have a stinger on the end of their tail that can jab into you and kill you.

All of them at the aquarium have had their stingers removed.

There were several "petting tanks" both inside and outside. Want to know what everyone was petting here?

Star fish. Lots and lots of star fish.

The otters are also so cute and fun to watch. This little guy decided to pop his head up and say hi to us.

Here is an over all shot of what it looks like outside. There were a lot of people there today.

It was so pretty out. Not very hot. Just perfect.

The Sharks were a big draw. People love to look at sharks.

Here the girls are peeking out from a jaw of a Great White Shark. Trinity is showing off her "tattoo" she got. You can't really tell in the photo but it's of two sharks facing each other.

They both got matching shirts and couldn't wait to put them on. So they changed while we were there.

While we were outside, waiting for the girls to do a craft project, I walked around a bit. I noticed we were right next the harbour. It was very pretty so I took a picture.

I spotted a light house that I never even knew was there.

By now, it was getting late. Time to go home. Everyone was tired and happy.