Melbourne/Melbourne Aquarium

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Sydney's team had duty this morning and no games. She brought her stuff to us early, and we got checked out of the cottage. We were headed to Melbourne today.  Since volleyball ended earlier than we expected, we were able to head out mid morning which was nice.

The two baby penguins.  The one bobs his head until he falls over and wakes up.

Gentoo Penguin

King Penguin

It was a 3 hour ride to Melbourne.  Since we arrived in Melbourne before we could check into our hotel, we decided to go to the Melbourne Aquarium.  It isn't the largest aquarium, but we enjoyed it.  We saw the penguins when we first entered.  They had king penguins and Gentoo penguins.  They are the 2nd and 3rd largest penguins in the world.  They really were big.  The king penguins had beautiful colors and the Gentoo are great swimmers.  There were two baby penguins in the exhibit.  They had fluffy brownish-black feathers.  They looked enormous.

Leafy sea dragon

Weedy sea dragon

The blue fish Dagan was chasing.

Sydney and Dagan getting eaten by a prehistoric shark

Cool fish, but don't remember the name

Nautilus

The other exhibit we really enjoyed was the seahorse area.  They had all different types.  We also saw a coral reef.  Dagan kept chasing a blue fish around the circular tank because he wanted a picture of it.  We also saw a nautilus, jellyfish, and some fish I can't remember the name.  In the shark and ray tank, they had some huge rays.  They were impressive.  A sea turtle in the tank kept trying to bite the scuba divers.  It was funny.  As we walked out, they had a rainforest area.  The green tree frogs were really bright.  We had a good few hours.

Look at the size of the ray compared to my family

Moon Jellyfish

Green tree frog

After visiting the aquarium, we checked into our hotel.  I lucked out and picked a place that is right downtown near everything we want to see/do while we are here.  Adam found a place for us to eat.  It advertised American food.  Adam and Sydney got burgers that tasted like home (not meatloaf on a bun); Dagan got a chili dog, and I got a club sandwich.  It was awesome.  I have a feeling we will be going here again before we leave Melbourne.