Thursday morning, we came down to beautiful Newport, Kentucky, to visit the aquarium. Well, eventually. I missed the turned into the parking garage to the levee and went over the bridge into Cincinnati. I turned around at the Boathouse where I felt almost classy as I passed the valet attendants. We parked and went up to the levee to find Kelley. The trip through was crowded but manageable. The kids got to see everything (except for jellyfish — exhibit under reconstruction) including petting horseshoe crabs, crab fights, anemones, porch gators, lorikeets that wanted to poop on us, and Sweet Pea the shark ray. One of the exciting parts was the shark petting exhibit. Kelley, Jake, Ben, and I were able to pet them. Abi wanted too, but she couldn’t quite reach them without dunking herself. Touching them wasn’t at all what I thought it would feel like. They were really gritty like sandpaper. It was a cool experience and helps me get over my anxiety over fish like taking care of our home tank seems to be doing.

Of course, what trip to the Newport Aquarium is complete if you don’t watch the penguins? The King penguins and their month and a half old chick stood there, seemingly watching us like how we watch them in wonder. The Gentoos, of course, put on a show with dives, torpedo-like swimming, and jumps out of the freezing water. I got some great footage of this and I will definitely make made a video compilation out of it.

We all had a great time at the aquarium and after 4 hours of walking, we were pretty exhausted. We went up to Jeremy and Kelley’s place for the evening and night to rest up for Friday.

After seeing the forecast Thursday evening, we thought it would be too cold for the zoo. However it didn’t seem to be that cold at all when I was loading up the van on Friday. After eventually finding my way to I-75, we made it to the Cincinnati Zoo. With the kids loaded in the wagon and stroller, we went on in. First off, I’d like to say that whomever designed the layout of this particular zoo didn’t take into account, well, people when those steep hills were paved. It was tough for us to get up those hills, especially when hauling a wagon with two small children (weighing a combined 80 pounds). We didn’t get to see everything although we did see every animal that we wanted. There were crocodiles, monkeys, elephants, and bears — oh my! The manatee was a gorgeous sight to see plus Nicky got to meet that wiley giraffe that surrounds his wardrobe and toys.

Inside the Wings of the World exhibit, we found more penguins! Kings, Magellanics, and Rockhoppers! These guys didn’t move around too much as the exhibit wasn’t nearly as big as the aquarium’s. After that, I finally spotted the Penguin Walkabout almost hidden right next to the gift shop. This is the area that I was looking forward to the whole trip — the Little Blues. At first the was only a few that came out and hid behind some shrubbery. Then they went into their rookery entrance. However, they came back out one after another. After running out of room on my memory card, we decided my time with the Little Blues was done.

We perused the gift shop. There was plenty of things inside to tempt us but alas we resisted, mostly because of the cost of everything. After leaving the gift shop, I spotted something in the stroller with Nick. Nicky had apparently grabbed a tiny stuffed giraffe from a low shelf and had eaten half of the price tag. We snatched that from him and returned it. Boy was he ever mad at us! He did calm down before we left for Nana’s house to have dinner so I’m sure he isn’t totally traumatized for life.