Recently, Ward's cousin, Cynthia, was visiting from Guatemala. One of our outings during her stay was a visit to the National Aquarium in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. It's been several years since we last visited, and we were pleasantly reminded of how much we like it. Below are pictures from our outing. Probably more than you want to see, but the animals were just so darn interesting.
First up are the jellyfish, perhaps my favorite exhibit. They floated and glided so effortlessly that I found them mesmerizing.
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| Fluorescent flower hat jellyfish |
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| Egg-yolk jellyfish |
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| Upside-down jellyfish that lie on the bottom with their tentacles up. |
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| Tiger jellyfish |
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| Not sure what kind these are, but we got to pet similar ones in a petting pool. They felt firm with a squishy layer on top. |
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| Spotted jellyfish |
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| And the giant display of glass jellyfish. 😉 |
On the top floor of the aquarium, you leave the water and enter the tropical rainforest. Cynthia felt right at home here, as many of the plants featured grow where she lives.
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| This banana tree, with its blooms and bananas forming, reminded me of the one time we got bananas from our tree in New Orleans. (Look to the right of the big yellowed leaf near the top to see the bananas.) |
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| There were colorful birds, including parrots... |
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| and scarlet ibis. |
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| The real star of the rainforest display was the sloth. |
The poison dart frogs were not allowed to roam freely like the rest of the rainforest animals, so we saw these brightly colored frogs behind glass. It was pretty dark, so not the best pictures. The frogs ranged in size from about 1/2 inch to 2 inches.
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| This tiny frog had a very big voice. |
A few other things we saw:
