Over the weekend we visited the Oklahoma Aquarium. It was a wonderful place!
There were gorgeous displays of coral reefs and jellyfish and all sorts of ocean animals.
There was a cool shark exhibit with a tunnel through the shark's tank. That meant the sharks were swimming all around us. (Rachel was a bit worried about that.)
All of us marvelled at the fabulous shapes and colors and designs of fish.
But the best part of the aquarium was that there were lots of animals that you could touch! We touched and admired horseshoe crabs, shrimp, sea urchins, starfish, and hermit crabs.
And then we discovered the manta rays. There was a big, shallow pool full of rays and small, harmless sharks. If you put your hand in the water, the rays would come up to be petted! They were incredibly smooth and soft.
Katherine was utterly fascinated. She and I must have petted rays and sharks for 20 minutes.
By the time they closed the ray tank to give the rays a little break, Katherine's dress was drenched and her pigtails dripped water. But she was grinning ear to ear.
It was a wonderful way to spend a morning.
As we left, Granny told the girls they could pick out something from the gift shop. Katherine immediately headed for the stuffed animals and chose a ray, the same kind that we had petted. Rachel wandered around until she noticed an underwater I Spy book and then wouldn't even consider looking at anything else. I couldn't have picked better gifts for them myself!
