Grand US Tour 2010: Long Beach Aquarium

In continuation to our grand tour of the West Coat, the week after our trip to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon we decided to basically check out the places around Los Angeles.  And one of those days, we decided to go to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach about 30 minutes drive south of my parents place in Gardena.

Originally, we planned to check out the Los Angeles Zoo but we changed our minds to simply stick to the aquarium.   My cousin Angel decided not to tag along with us so it was just me and my family that pushed through the trip.

And so from Gardena with my sister's car and guided by GPS, we drove south through I-110 then I-45 and I-710 to reach Long Beach's aquarium.  Upon arrival, the first thing I saw was the roundabout across the aquarium that featured dolphin figures.  I parked the car at the carpark building beside the round-about.

It was pretty cold there when we got out of the car.  A bit cooler than in Gardena which is not that far from Long Beach.  I guess it's because of the cool breeze coming from the sea.

Admission costs $24.95 for adults and fortunately Janine still has not reached 3 years of age then so she was still free.   We are really glad that most theme parks and attractions in the US only charge admission fees to kids 3 and up.

The Aquarium of the Pacific basically is divided by a number of exhibits that features different marine environments in the Pacific like the northern, southern and tropical regions of the Pacific plus other features like the Shark lagoon and Whales.

The building is composed of different aquariums (thus the name implies) featuring different marin species.  They've got planktons, jellyfishes, clown fishes, seahorses, starfishes, sharks, seals, whales, rays, otters, and others more.  On the balcony, they had this touch pools where kids can actually touch starfishes, and rays.

Behind the main building, they have this water play area where kids play on fish statues that can blow water when pushing a button.  While we were in that area, we waited for a show to happen in the amphitheatre at the Shark lagoon.  When we got into the show, I wondered why only a few guests sat in.  Then I realized it was a story telling show where the host read the kids a book about sea animals.  Well I got a bit bored and even Janine seemed not interested on the show.

And so we just proceded on looking on the other exhibits in the building.  Inside at the main hall, the first thing one would actually see is this huge structure of a humpback whale hanging from the ceiling.  I think it is life-sized and it looks facinating.  Then when we are actually planning to exit the building, they had this show in the main hall where they projected on each wall a video about the whales.  It was nice.

Overall, we only spent about 3 hours inside the aquarium and Janine liked seeing all the fishes and sea creatures inside.  Outside, we took a few minutes to take photos along its boardwalk where from the other side of the wharf area we get to see a light house and from a far is the Queen Mary ship docked.

Before heading to our next itinerary which is to Hollywood Boulevard to buy some souvenirs and to the Cathedral of the Lady of the Angels at Temples Street, we took our lunch first at the nearby Chilis Restaurant for some ribs and fries.