Day 2 of Road trip: Baltimore Acquarium

On Tuesday morning we woke up around 7:30 and got everything ready to go, before we headed down stairs to the restaurant in the hotel, for breakfast.   My Mom had woke up earlier and had asked if she could take Dextra out for a short walk, for me, so I let her, so I could stay with the girls, especially since Mom was dressed and I wasn't, just yet.  This was the first time my Mom had done this and Dextra was wonderful for my Mom.   I rarely have others take my guide dogs out for me, but sometimes it just makes sense and is sometimes necessary, so it is good for her to learn to relieve herself with someone else holding the leash, than myself.  Dextra can be a bit stubborn about relieving, at times, so I thought this was good practice for her.

After a nice breakfast of pancakes and bacon, we loaded up my Mom's car and headed several blocks away to the Baltimore Acquarium, where we had a 10:30 AM entrance time slotted for us, already.

We found local parking and walked two blocks to the acquarium, Dextra enjoying city work, traffic not bothering her in the least, as we crossed roads with ease.   She seems to come to life in cities and really enjoys the extra challenge.

We got our tickets and headed into the acquarium where we were met with a huge crowd of people.   It was all quite confusing for all of us, at times, but we all remained composed and managed to stay together.   I did hold the hand of my youngest sometimes, but mostly had my oldest daughter's hand, that way if people cut infront of Dextra and she lost track of my Mom, who she was trying to follow, most of the time, my oldest daughter could help me and Dextra relocate my Mom.   Sometimes Dextra and I took the lead, to let her work the crowd and take my oldest daughter to the exhibits, while my Mom followed us with my youngest daughter.  Again, Dextra loved the challenge of working the crowds.

First we went to the dolphins.  We sat watching a short training session and my daughters both totally fell in love with the dolphins, which were also my favorite, as well.   Dextra was very interested in the noises the dolphins made, but remained laying down, like the professional Seeing Eye Dog she is.

We then went down some stairs and watched the dolphins swimming below the water line, sometimes swimming right by the windows.  It was really neat and my girls squealed with excitement.   A little later they did a more formal show and we watched as they introduced all the dolphins and had them do a few of their trained behaviors.   The dolphins really seemed to love working with the trainers.

i was impressed that things had changed since the last time I was there over 12 years ago.  Now they do not seem to do a set show, they do short training sessions and most of the behaviors the dolphins were asked to do had more to do with playing and getting them into positions that they may need to get into for examination by vet or trainer, to check them over for health reasons.  I think the dolphins seemed much happier.   We went back later, at the end of the day, and saw them a third time and saw a third different interaction session, so no more of the same thing over and over again, which I think is great.

After the dolphins, we saw a lot of different things, from rays, sharks, turtles, frogs, a few birds, like the Puffin, which was a major favorite of my oldest daughter, and so much more.  

We spent almost 5 hours in the acquarium, some of it was spent trying to figure things out, as the map was very confusing.   Even staff members admitted to the new map being confusing.  We took elevators a lot, because they had escalators, and though a lot of guide dog users use these with no problems, I  prefer not to, unless I absolutely have to and my Mom agreed we would not risk it.   Different elevators took you different places, which added to the confusion.   Luckily, the staff was always helpful.

Part of the confusion was how they have floors labeled.  They have a basement, a ground floor, which you would think would be the 1st floor, but it is not, the floor above ground floor is called Level 1, which really made things confusing, until we figured this out.   I've never been in a building that had floors labeled like this, it's very odd to me.

We ate in their main restaurant, but were not impressed with the level of the food quality for the price, which was extremely expensive.  If we go again, we'll eat right before we go in and then eat again after we leave, to avoid that issue.

After our third trip to the dolphins we went into gift shops and my Mom got the girls some nice items, including t-shirts, necklaces, stuffed animals, etc.

We left the acquarium around 3 or so and were back in the car, heading to our next destination, by 4 PM.    We were going to drive down to Chincoteague Island, where we'd spend the next two days.

On the trip, down from Baltimore, we had to cross the big bridge near Annapolis, MD, over the Chesapeake Bay.   My Mom has some fear of heights, but she did a great job getting us over the bridge.

A heavy downpour met us on the other side, but luckily didn't last too long.

We stopped at McDonalds for dinner and then headed on our way.

While passing through Deleware, going through a small town, suddenly my youngest, who will be 3 in September, called out, "Dairy Queen!"   My Mom looked around and couldn't see it, but my oldest then spotted it up the road aways and on the opposite side than we were on.   So, of course, we had to stop.   I took Dextra out to stretch her legs and relieve herself, we all got out to do the same and then we went through the drive through and all of us got ice cream.

Mom continued the long drive down to Chincoteague, where we finally arrived at the hotel around 9:30 PM.   Exhausted we all got out of the car, unloaded what was needed and got into the room to settle down for the night.

Another fun filled day passed at the Baltimore Acquarium, new animals seen for the first time, and Dextra getting to strut her stuff in the city.