The Baltimore National Aquarium

Last weekend, we decided to "put" a short Road Trip again...a very very short Road Trip to be precise..a visit to the Baltimore National Aquarium which is just a lil more than a hour's drive from our place. We'd heard quite a bit about it from people here, and boy! we weren't disappointed. We reached the place at around 11am, but could get an entry ticket for only 1:45pm. Entrees are allowed inside in batches, and there were a LOT of people too (probably cos it was a weekend). But we used the free time to do some local sightseeing...a visit to the ESPN SportZone in Baltimore was the first place on my list, cos a no-go to a place like that for a sports freak like me would be like a Muslim pilgrim going for the Hajj to Mecca and skipping the Masjid al-Haram. (Now where did that come from!) ummmm....kinda atleast..Old Trafford would be more appropriate. (*Hi-fives all my fellow ManUtd men*) The SportZone is a pretty cool place though, and contains a bar/restaurant/arcade center and had an awesome SportsCenter Store too. Alas, a bit too pricey for my liking. We spent the rest our time visiting local shops and trying out the local pier cuisine.

Well, our entry time came at last and we experienced a totally different world once we were in. I can't bring myself to explain every aspect of it, but in short, the place is HUGE. By the end of it all, I was so tired that I felt like a fish who'd injured its fins cos it had swam too much. We were treated to all kinds of aquatic species, (atleast our eyes were treated - not our stomachs) sting rays, sharks, small fish, big fish, medium fish,pretty fish, ugly fish, cute fish,NEMO...haha!That was sooo funny...I saw atleast 10 kids excitedly telling their parents "Look! There's Nemo!" when they saw a clownfish. Only two parents were good enough to respond "Oh look! there's Dory too!" Tch..Tch..Sad. (I'm not doing a survey on parent-child interaction over here by the way). We watched a film show by Animal Planet...visited the Australia Wild Extremes section, visited Frog World, Coral Reef, Tropical Rainforest etc. Saw turtles, sea-horses, octupuses, eels, and other weird species galore. The Sharks were very impressive too, but looked dull and bored. Seeing fresh meat through glass partitions for long durations can make you that way I guess.

Well, the BEST section of the Aquarium is the Dolphin Show. This is a 30-min special show that takes place only like 4 times a day. We had to get special tickets for it too. I've liked Dolphins ever since I was a lil kid and now I love them. Such cute and intelligent creatures! We were treated to so many tricks from them including 10-foot leaps, doing circus-like hoop jumps, swimming on their backs balancing toys on their bellies, heavy-duty doses of water splashing on the people who were sittin in the front 3-4 rows. The 6 female trainers were amazing too. Ahem...I mean...they showed the right commands, fed the dolphins with little fish after they had done their tricks, and so on..see!

I Want A Dolphin As A Pet!!!!!!! (even better if a trainer comes free with it)

Umm...I'd better stop now.

//On the personal front...Life's going on ok..work takes up all the time during the weekdays...but then weekends come too! Watched 'Pirates' and 'Miami Vice' last weekend, and I thought both were pretty poor. Watched 'Omkara' yesterday..had to travel to the next state (Virginia) to get a hindi-flick screening theatre! But really liked the movie...Saif was awesome.
yup that's pretty much it!

Here are a few visuals of the Baltimore trip.

In front of the Zone














Sting Ray!














Beautiful scene in the Tropical Rainforest World

















Spotted Nemo?..or Dory?












A diver feeding the fish














Whatcha lookin at?














Small in size, Large in number














Aaawwwwww!














The Dolphin Show














*Dolphin Leap*