On Saturday, we drove a couple hours south of Columbus to the Cincinnati/Newport, KY area to go to the Newport Aquarium. My aunt & uncle don't live too far from there so they met us there and my dad also joined us on the trip so he could see his sister, brother-in-law, and, of course, his granddaughters. We've had this trip planned for a couple months now and since Todd & I have been looking into getting a bigger SUV, we used this trip to test drive a Honda Pilot. Todd can rent cars from work for only $15/day so we took full advantage of this and Lucy & Cece were pleasantly surprised to have a built-in blu-ray player for the 2 hour drive. I'm pretty sure if we asked Lucy what her favorite part of the trip was, instead of saying something about the aquarium, she'd mention watching movies in the car.
We got to the aquarium right when they opened at 10:00 AM and headed inside. My aunt & uncle were meeting us at 10:30 AM and we didn't make it very far before they showed up. We spent the next 2-2.5 hours wandering around and checking out all the exhibits. They had several touch pools that the girls enjoyed, a new octopus exhibit (which was actually underwhelming), sting rays, penguins, sharks, seahorses, jellyfish, turtles, and a lot of smaller tanks with different fish. The girls did great, although they were getting hungry towards the end, so after we left, we literally walked about 200 feet to have lunch at Tom + Chee, a fast casual restaurant that specializes in different grilled cheese and tomato soup combinations. I guess they were also featured on Shark Tank a few years back. After a leisurely lunch and spending more time with my aunt & uncle, we made the drive back to Columbus.
Quick bathroom stop at a rest area & the girls were glued to the tv in the car
Outside the aquarium
First priority of the day...getting a family pic!
Todd, Uncle Fred, and Cece walking around
Cece at one of the touch pools
Lucy was excited to make a seahorse penny at the penny press
The girls checking out some fish
Sharks!
Waiting for something to swim by...
and along came a huge turtle
Aunt Chris, my dad, and the girls
Posing with a seahorse
Loved this purple & pink fish
Walking through "Gator Alley"
Quick stop at the play area to run around and blow off some energy
Attempted another family pic at the sting ray exhibit
The octopus exhibit is their newest one but the octopus was curled up in the corner of the tank so you couldn't really see it when we were there
Huge spider crab
Jellyfish
Sting rays swimming above us as we walked through a tunnel
Lucy at one of the touch pools
Penguin exhibit
Climbing/posing with the penguins
Walking across the shark bridge
Grandpa & Lucy walking across (spoiler alert, we all made it across)
At lunch, Todd had a chicken bacon ranch grilled cheese and a side of mac & cheese
I had half a Tom + Chee sandwich (it had tomato, basil, and balsamic vinegar) and a side of tomato basil soup
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