Weekend Adventures: San Antonio Aquarim

Its no secret that the boys and I love the Zoo. But if your kids are like my kids, or maybe its just boys, they want to touch everything.  And lets face it, getting up close and personal with lions, tigers and bears, just isn't what I had in mind.  So while we love the Zoo, The San Antonio Aquarium is where we go when we just need to get our hands wet.

If you have been here a while you might remember our first visit to the Aquarium.  It was the night before the grand opening.  And I got a chance to go back again the next day without kids.  Yeah, I know.  I should not have enjoyed it as much as I did.  The boys recently got free passes to visit and were so excited to go back. They were given to them for good citizenship at school and was actually made out for the child and a parent. Which I thought was super generous on their part.

Even though it had been over a year since our last visit, the boys knew exactly what they wanted to do first. Lex knew there would be a tortoise on the loose and Ant just wanted to see some sting rays.  Me, I love it all.  Even the dinosaurs.

Our most favorite thing about the San Antonio Aquarium is the DO NOT TOUCH THE ANIMALS signs that are posted everywhere.  Because, the NOT is crossed out.  I kid you not, you can touch, just about everything.  Save for the eels, anything poisonous, a few animals in "in wall" habitats and the snakes.  Well you can touch the snakes that they bring out to but they do keep them in closed enclosures, obviously.

It took this kid no time at all to find what he came for.  You can even buy tokens and redeem them for food. Lex took two trips back to the iguana house and finally got this little tortoise to take a bit from him.  Then he stood up and said "OK, we can leave now!"  Crazy boy.



And Ant got what he wanted too.  I think we spent over an hour and 3 trips back to the Sting Ray Pool. We even ran into a mermaid, which the boys pretended to not be excited about but I caught the oldest one admiring. Lord help me!



And me, I got my hands on it all.  Picked up a feisty iguana, who thanked me for the love by letting me being his shed post.  He left me a gift too.



And even though the big guys were sleeping the day away, We caught one of the employees taking a snake back to his home, we got to pet him too.  It was a very hands on day.

My boys are very much like me.  They learn by doing.  They don't want to read about life in a book.  I mean sure, we love to read around here, but we need to get our hands dirty and experience things in person.  And the San Antonio Aquarium is just the place to do that!