BEST DAY EVER.

Ripley's Aquarium Toronto.
Today we went to the aquarium. No whales, no dolphins (thankfully, otherwise I wouldn't go - have you seen Blackfish?) just lots of lovely fish and some sharks and two rescue turtles and some sea horses and a load of sting rays in a really big tank.

First, we stopped near the Eaton Shopping Centre for lunch. Had a noodle bowl where you added a selection of bits. Great idea and fun too.

 Then to the Aquarium. Started well, with skeletons. You know how we like skeletons.

 And a selfie.

And then we just saw everything.

Including the ray feeding. Monica, the diver and ray feeder is engulfed by these rays who all want a bit of squid.

Here she is. Monica said that touching a ray is like touching a wet mushroom...

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The ray and shark tank. 

 A green sawfish resting. They're about 8ft long.

Sharks.

Two turtles live in this tank. They seemed to be the most active until..

.. I saw one 'snuggling' with a nurse shark. We were thinking how cute that was, until we asked a researcher, who told us that the turtles actually bully the fish and this one was lying on the shark to assert her dominance. Less cute, but still, she's only 26, she's got another 40 years and 100lbs to go before she really growns up.

Found a bit where man asserts his authority by hitting a bag and getting a number to verify alpha male state.

NN1 hit bag and achieve high of 996, beating all the 20 and 30 year old weight lifters, who only managed 850 ish. Made us both laugh. Saw jelly fish.

 

Took a jelly fish selfie. 

Saw the Willy Wonka style behind the scene waterworks.

Then... THEN we got to touch the rays! They just come swimming up from their big, deep, tank..probably on the off chance of a bit of squid. Visitors are allowed to pet them and they DO feel like wet mushrooms. They are beautiful and ripply and quite tame. I just loved it. I even went all touristy and bought a t-shirt.

It's a great day out. We went at 5pm (they closed at 11pm) and by 7 it was mostly empty. I'd say the best time to go would be 7 /7.30, when all the children are too sweaty and sticky to stay out and get whisked home by parents. The exhibitions here are brilliant. The layout and information is really good. The tanks are beautifully designed and we had a great time. Well, I did. NN1 was dragging me out the door after my third go back with the rays.

Oh you will, aquarium world, you will.