From start to finish, Ruby was a great kid. We offered to let her watch a movie on the drive down but she was perfectly happy playing and talking. She was excited when we finally arrived claiming to remember the last time we went. It was over two years ago so I highly doubt it but was glad she was excited.
I decided that it must be a little stressful and scary to go to things like that as a little kid. She spent most of the day surrounded by legs, getting bumped into and having us move her from place to place so she could see and be safe. In general I think that people aren't very respectful about personal space (ask my friend about the guy who nearly ran me over with the grocery cart when I was eight months pregnant) but it was out in full force that day. While we were making Ruby wait in line and take turns, grown ups cut, pushed kids out of the way at the touch pool, ignored general traffic patterns, etc. Oh, and don't even get me started on the parents who ignore their own children, push you to get the perfect photograph and let their entirely too old children go bananas in the toddler areas. As a teacher, it takes everything in me not to shout, "1, 2, 3 all eyes on me!" and make then line up, eyes forward with duck tail arms =)
Regardless, we had a fun day. Ruby wasn't that into the fish but loved the kid areas, statues and touch pools.
When it was time to leave, we let Ruby pick out a present from the gift shop. She picked a polar bear because she said the polar bear movie was her favorite part of the aquarium.
We're trying to reduce the amount of stuff she has but feel good thanking a kid who is in the car 24 minutes after she wakes up, drives two hours, walks around the aquarium, has lunch and drives home without putting up a single fight.
We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium last Memorial Day weekend and experienced the same exact thing!
ReplyDelete