SeaLife Minnesota and MOA

It's hard to think of a trip to the Mall of America without a journey through the tunnels underneath the sharks and fish. Of course, my daughter loves the rays (not the Tampa/St Pete baseball variety, but these living, breathing marine animals).

The jellyfish were especially intriguing today. Not sure they changed anything at the exhibit ... or that the creatures themselves were any different. Maybe the lighting just seemed different because I was hyped up on my venti mocha from Starbucks this morning.

The horsh-shoe crabs were pretty hyped up, too. They were all over the place inside their tank. This one crawled up the side of the tank that was along the wall of the exhibit. Reaching the highest point it could get to, the crab 'surfed' upside down on the bubbling water and landed wrong-side-up on the floor of the tank. The kids were worried that it was stuck, but it quickly jiggled back and forth and got back on it's feet ... er ... legs? - whatever it crawls around on.

Mr. Seahorse here was looking very nice and 'posing' for me, but this fuzzy picture was the best I could do. Next time, I think it'll be worth it to take my nice camera along, instead of relying on the camera on my new phone - which isn't bad, but still.

My daughter was happy to watch even more rays swim around and over us in the tunnel. Good mood for all, as we eventually journeyed through the gift chop at SeaLife, a Nickelodeon 'Toy' shop, and the Lego World. (No purchases required for happiness - only the promise to put things on a birthday/Christmas list.)

The shark above may be what's scary in real life, but I think my son was just acting. He's seen these creatures more than the normal human being. They were pretty active today, and we even talked quite a bit about the South American tank and the Minnesota Lake Waters as well.

This guy was in the South American waters. His whiskers are cool. Not sure how good he'd taste, though.

This lake sturgeon was pretty friendly. I think that's a smile, but I could be wrong. We can never find any muskie, though. Someday we'll have to ask if they actually have any in the tank or if they just list them on the roll with the others to have us stand around longer, looking for the hiding fish.



We had some lunch after we 'shopped' (really just looked) in the stores. That part of the trip never seems to warrant any pictures, but the kids do enjoy their Asian Wok, and Sbarro food. We even are able to share without incident. Maybe Woody was the key ingredient to a wonderful morning at the mall. Who knows? :)