Day 11: Barcelona Aquarium

The day started slow, with a nice sit-down breakfast in the apartment. The children seem so centered in the apartment; their behaviour is much closer to normal and they seem very happy. There were too many adults to coordinate and we got out a bit late.

We found our way to the aquarium and walked through the main fishes-in-tanks part. It is one of the nicest aquariums I’ve been to. Probably 3rd after Baltimore and Newport. C really liked seeing the sea horses, and they both enjoyed the moving walkway through the tunnel-tank. (There is a plexiglass tunnel through a very large water enclosure). There were eels, sharks, and those crazy big sun fish, and we even got to see the keepers feeding them.

After a quick lunch in the aquarium cafeteria, the Grandparents and Lauren went to an IMAX show and we continued through the more interactive part of the aquarium. There were more tanks with tunnels under/through them to crawl in, a little tree fort to climb up in, a penguin enclosure, a large sperm whale replica that you could walk through, and a submarine replica with lots of lights and buttons and such. C loved the submarine and spent 75% of the time in there. He called it a train, though. When I tried to explain it was a submarine, he thought I was saying it was a subway.

After a late and much-needed nap back at the apartment, we set out to Las Ramblas to find the most Barcelona-dining experience we could. Mission accomplished. Big glasses of sangria, a pan of paella, and an assortment of tapas. Yum! On the way home, we strolled through the Barri Gotic and soaked up the old-world ambiance.

ok, so I haven’t actually scanned this yet, but I wanted to remind myself what should go here for this week…

I love this picture! Lauren is so sweet with the children. I’m so happy we’ve had this opportunity to reaquaint the children with Auntie Lauren.

There was a beautiful walkway down into the aquarium, surrounede by bamboo. Down at the bottom they took our picture in a shark mouth replica!

Ruby has had a lot of hair-in-the-eyes issues lately. I guess her hair just grew some, and is at a different stage now. Or maybe it’s the stupid hard water here in Barcelona. Anyway, she looks like a sad little ragamuffin!

I think she looks adorable! Such a sweet little girl, becoming not so little so fast!

C spent a lot of time looking at the C horses. We have a book called Mama Mama, Papa Papa and one of the stanzas goes “Papa, Papa, we have grown, we can swim out on our own” with a picture of a sea horse and its babies. There were even little seahorses in this tank!

C can be very outgoing sometimes. It’s hard to tell when, though, because often if someone comes up to him (especially an adult) and says hi, he’ll go into shy mode. But a lot of the time he will approach people, especially other children. Often he’ll say something ridiculous like “Gai-gokes” which is a favorite saying of his. I think he uses these nonsense words in response to all the langauges around us that he doesn’t understand.

Ruby is signing “please” for me to take her down.

It’s kind of hard to explain what this is… it’s two plexiglass tubes about 5 inches apart, enclosed along the edges, with 5 or 6 water jets inside shooting water in between them. The effect is a big swirly water tube. Children can slide down it, and Ruby did with much gusto. She really loved it.

Damn those poor lightning conditions! This would have been a good one.

The manta ray tank was a big donut-shape with a center area for visitors to stand and observe the manta rays swimming around. To get into the center area, you had to crawl (yes, crawl) through little access tubes. That’s part of a manta ray swimming past C’s head. It was pretty cool!

Lauren is ready to rock penty! Lauren got this shirt at the chinese import store, where their designer has apparently only taken about 3 months of English classes.

C enjoys straws.