Ripley's

One of our 100 Things 2 Do This Summer items was to visit a museum.

We have a Children's Museum in town, but I've been there so many times that anything more than a half hour drives me up the wall.

Where I haven't been, in years and years, is the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto.  It's only a 2 hour drive from London, but we never seem to take advantage of it.

This weekend I threw it out there to the family.
They loved the idea…. and then they expanded on it - "What about the CN Tower?  What about the Ripley's Museum?   YES!  Let's go to the Ripley's Aquarium!"

UGH!

What was supposed to be a fun and educational family day transmorphed into my nightmare.

I'm afraid of fish.

Not the little beta fish the girls used to have - anything contained in a bowl (a SMALL bowl) is okay.  It's anything outside of a bowl that frightens me.
I see the commercials for Marine Land/Sea World and I have nightmares of the orca that kisses the kid - changing its mind and biting the child's head off.  (technically a mammal - but it swims and my nightmares don't discriminate)

I hate swimming in anything but a swimming pool because even the tiniest minnows swimming near me freak me out.

Irrational - but that's what fear is.

But how can you say "no" to these faces?

  
Welcome to my hell:

Please forgive the photo quality - the lighting inside the building is dark and I only had my iPad with me to take pictures.

It is an amazing facility - apparently the largest indoor aquarium in North America - and well worth the price of admission…. IF you like fish.

There are tunnels through the larger aquariums so you can see the fish swimming all around you.

The girls and Hubby were particularly enthralled with the sharks.

There are also areas for the kids to pet stingrays and whatever these things are:

It had legs like some kind of crab, but this was as close as I was getting and I only did this to make sure that Madison wasn't sucked in and devoured.

Creepy giant spider legs peeking beneath the shell.  (shivers)

There's even a small booth where you can sell your family by the pound;

Yup, almost six grand!  If only they were tuna I'd sell them in a heartbeat! (kidding)

What I'll be dreaming about tonight?

A fish and a spider mixed together (king crab) - if this isn't everyone's nightmare, I don't know what is!
I think the one at Ripley's was about 4 times this size and looked like he was quite capable of breaking right through the aquarium glass.  I'm pretty confident the sign indicated that he had a taste for blood as well.
I can't be certain - I didn't get that close to his enclosure - but I feel fairly sure.

All in all I'd highly recommend this as a site to see.
I won't be going back…
but the family certainly will.

Have a great one!