The summation of the day is it may be Wednesday, but Friday is the star!
Paloma was first to wake and she soon had us all up and ready to head to the adjacent Greggs for some breakfast before the drive onwards to Plymouth. More by luck than judgement, with the stop yesterday in Andover for food and the Travelodge in Ilminster, we'd split the journey into three very similar legs of around 1hr20 each and it was a pain free drive past Exeter and skirting the edge of Dartmoor to Plymouth.
Paloma was first to wake and she soon had us all up and ready to head to the adjacent Greggs for some breakfast before the drive onwards to Plymouth. More by luck than judgement, with the stop yesterday in Andover for food and the Travelodge in Ilminster, we'd split the journey into three very similar legs of around 1hr20 each and it was a pain free drive past Exeter and skirting the edge of Dartmoor to Plymouth.
The main aim of today was to visit the National Marine Aquarium and since we were too early to park up at our Airbnb accommodation, we found a carpark close to the harbour and made our way to the NMA. It's a impressive looking building and it didn't take too long to queue up to process our online booking and to issue us with our annual passes (the same price as a day ticket) that will allow us to hopefully return to the aquarium again later in the week for 'free'.
Forrest has wanted to visit the NMA ever since watching the BBC2 programme, Secrets of the Aquarium which was filmed here. It is the UK's largest aquarium and home to the Ocean Conservation Trust, a charity dedicated to connecting people with the ocean (and who also run most of the activities at the aquarium). Both kids were excited to meet some of the aquatic characters they had seen on the show so that certainly did its job in engaging our kids.
Here is a selection of photos from our phones and kids' cameras in the main aquarium.
After spending 2 hours making our way around the aquarium we made our way to the cafe area to grab a bite to eat before heading of to our afternoon activities. Whilst convenient, the fare on offer at the cafe was not brilliant and this was one area we felt could really be improved upon.
Then we went our separate ways. When booking we had seen that the NMA offered a very reasonable price for a behind the scenes tour that we knew Forrest would love and whilst Paloma was too young to take part in this, there was a Mini Marine Biologist information and craft activity on at the same time that would be right up her street.
With it being Halloween this week, there was a dark and mysterious theme to the session that was all about deep sea creatures. The kids got to learn about some of these animals and design their own anglerfish hat, before a group experiment to demonstrate how hydrothermal vents, or deep underground volcanos, dissipate their heat.
For the behind the scenes tour you are taken into some of the working areas of the NMA including a few of the laboratories and also up to the top access areas for two of the large tanks, which for us was the Atlantic Ocean and Great Barrier Reef. The Atlantic Ocean tank was definitely the favourite where we got to learn more about the resident sharks and the famous Friday the green turtle, who also came up close to say hello. They also explained more about their Seagrass Restoration Project and why this is so important for the UK's coastal waters. The ranger from the Ocean Conservation Trust that took us round was very interesting and open to questions from the group which made the whole tour informative and fun.
We then all met back up at the shark talk before a final wander round, and of course the obligatory trip to the gift shop.
Blogged by Matt and Amber.
Blogged by Matt and Amber.
