First day trip in America - Baltimore Aqurium

Posted by Nbhat

One of the closest things to see near Rockville was National Aquarium at Baltimore. It was an hours drive from rockville where I am currently put up. I was wondering how to go visit there. Thankfully Aneel offered to take me there on Saturday. We booked the tickets online for 11'o clock and we were to start by 9:30. Aneel arrived at my place around 9:45 AM and we hit the road with pleasant weather.
This was my first experience traveling using directions provided by mapquest with the conventions used on the US high ways. It was so organized, the naming conventions of the highways, directions for exit points and there were no traffic signals or road crossing. It was amazing to know that all the states use the same conventions. The traffic was homogeneous and was strictly following the lane discipline. In this kind of traffic somebody is meeting with an accident must be a real bad driver or must have run out of luck miserably. Aneel had to step up the gas so that we could be on time. We entered the town around 10:45 and missed the concessional parking provided by Aquarium. We entered the aquarium just in time for the allotted schedule.
We spent sometime at the string ray tank. There were aquarium personnel who were swimming along with string rays and sharks in diving gear. It was hard to believe they were swimming with same animals which became famous when Steve Erwin died. Occasionally they would pop up on the surface and take questions from people watching them.

Next we headed to the Dolphin show, which was made interesting by the facts about Dolphins, how they acquire the behavior and how one can become a trainer. Dolphin behavior was amazing watch. One of the good things I observed was the accessibility options provided in the public places. All along the show there was also person interpreting it in sign language for the challenging hearing abilities. Wherever possible there will be signs in Braile and wheel chairs will be available for the tours.
Then we had food at the frog cafe. Not surprisingly, I had to eat cheese pizza which was the only vegetarian food available.
Aquarium contains different species of fish which have been grouped on the basis of habitat and exhibited in similar ecological conditions(Including plants, soil, water, rocks and temperature and in some case coral). Certainly its not a like fish tank with different fish. Each of the eco systems has notes on identification, interesting facts. I guess most famous among the children being "The Nemo"(Clown fish).Apart from the fish, there are exhibition area for frogs, rain forest simulation and Australian echo system. We spent almost 3 hours watching all the exhibits and then strolled around for a while on the inner harbor boardwalk area. Sun was getting hotter and we started our journey back.

National Aquarium