DALLAS WORLD AQUARIUM

On the recommendation of a friend (thanks Jason!), we added the Dallas World Aquarium to our Texas to-do list, and I'm so glad we did. It ended up being everyone's favorite activity over the entire trip (even more fun than Great Wolf Lodge, according to the kids!)

 Even the OUTSIDE of the aquarium was cool. The Disney-like admissions line (which was empty on Easter morning at opening time) was well decorated and filled with all sorts of cool fish, birds, and even mammals (and touch screen kiosks to explore more about it).

 Once we finished our breakfast (no food or drink allowed inside, so we dined just outside the gate while watching the storks), we headed up to the 3rd floor, then very slowly wound our way down through Mundo Maya, Orinoco, Africa, and Borneo. We saw an incredible number of bird species (some caged and some free-flying, and multiple types of penguins), many more mammals that we expected (like sloths, a wombat, an island of monkeys, lemurs, marmosets, a group of howler monkeys hiding at the tip-top of the atrium, a manatee, and a black jaguar, to name a few), some cool reptiles, both big and small (from gorgeous chameleons to saltwater crocs), and of course, fish. The actual aquarium level had tanks of representative coral reefs from around the world. It was a very neat place where everything was laid out and designed perfectly, so that you felt like you were right there with the animals, and also that they were living the good life in realistic environments!

Oh, I forgot to mention the Giant River Otters:

The shark character switched into various other things during our time there (multiple different fish costumes), and while we were resting, we saw a whole group of costumed workers doing a tribal dance across the aquarium near the jaguar exhibit.

James highly enjoyed photobombing Cora here...

 The aquarium level also had multiple tanks that you could walk through, including one with a variety of sharks in it:

 The lady I talked to at the front counter told me it would take 1-1.5 hours to go through the Dallas World Aquarium, but we spent 3.5 hours there (including about 45 minutes for lunch overlooking the animals - the food was great, so I recommend it as a great way to multitask eating and resting your feet while still entertaining the kids). In fact, after lunch, we went all the way through the aquarium a second time (at a much faster pace) because the kids wanted to see a few of the exhibits one more time (including the jaguar, who was still hiding in it's "safe" spot, unfortunately - though we did see it's tail flicking and live video of it sleeping on a big log).

This was truly a wonderful way to spend Easter morning!