The Florida Aquarium Part 3

 When I found out that Jeannette was going to be here this week with her boys, I texted her to see if they would be interested in going to the aquarium in Tampa.  I knew that Joshua and Benjamin were really interested in frogs and toads, but didn't know if they would also like seeing fish, birds, lemurs and more.  She texted back right away and said, "Absolutely, Ben had just said that he wanted to go to an aquarium."

Jeannette let me know on Sunday that Wednesday morning was the best day to go The Florida Aquarium for the four of them, so I made reservations for that day.  I met them there at 10 a.m. and we spent the next two hours walking through the exhibits seeing all the aquarium had to offer.  Just like I did the last two times I visited, I took them to the Florida Wetlands area first.  That's by far my favorite and the easiest place to start.  The boys loved the turtles, crocodiles and snakes.  I was once again amazed at the birds in the water so incredibly close to us.  

Our next stop was the fish tank area and sting rays.  Josh and Ben both loved touching the sting ray.  Their interest started to wan a little bit after that.  We had been looking at exhibits for about an hour and a half, and Ben was ready for the gift shop.  Once they found the shark tanks, however, they were more than excited.  We counted the sharks, watched the sea turtle and name all of the odd looking fish.  It was a lot of fun and made me a little bit sad too.  As I watched the boys run toward the glass, I had a flashback to when my own children were that age.  It was bittersweet to think that we would never do things like this again with them when they were young.  The nice part, however, was remembering that we were all here together two months ago enjoying the same aquarium.  

Before we left today, we visited the gift shop and the penguins.  It was fun watching the boys pick out a souvenir to take home - a stuffed squid for Joshua and an ocean play set for Benjamin.  The Pancoast family made plans to head to the beach for the afternoon, while I made my way back to the car.  It had been a lot of fun and I was glad that I could share a little bit of the Florida that I have discovered with them all.