Dallas

Early on in our Texas adventure we traveled to Dallas after hearing great things about the museums and aquarium there. It was over Martin Luther King, Jr weekend so I had three days off work. We set a loose agenda:

1) JFK Museum

2) Dallas Aquarium
3) The new Perot Museum of Nature and Science

The drive took about 3 hrs and 20 minutes, so it's a pretty good trek from where we are located! Luckily we love road trips so it flew by. 

The first place we visited was the JFK Museum which is formally called The Sixth Floor Museum as it is located on the 6th floor of the Texas School Book Depository: The actual location where Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK. The location itself was pretty amazing - I've been to some great museums in my day but never one that was located in such a significant location.

I couldn't take pictures inside the museum but if you are ever in Dallas you have to come here. It's so fascinating, depressing, humbling, and interesting all at the same time. I learned a lot and I have to thank my cousin Marianne for the recommendation!

The next place we visited was the Dallas Aquarium which is right downtown amongst all the skyscrapers. It's located in a building that once was a warehouse, which makes it pretty cool. This aquarium was unique in that they tried to replicate ecosystems in different areas of the world rather than just focus on the water life. Because of this there is a random jaguar in one of the exhibits. But they also had the usual fare of flamingos, penguins, sharks, turtles, etc. Here are a lot of pictures!

The seahorses were really cool. It's hard to tell because there is nothing to scale them to, but these were actually itty bitty seahorses and they were getting swept away by the current so they would hook onto the grass. It was fun to watch them.

This crab looked like an alien. It's amazing that they taste so good when they look so ugly. Although I don't know if this is a species you can actually eat. Who knows.

The penguins were soooo cute! There were two that were described as being "lazy" by the trainer that was feeding them. One was partially blind and old so she had an excuse but the other one knew that if he stayed on his prefered platform the trainer would come feed him rather than him having to swim to her. So he just waited to get fed last but he saved a lot of effort in doing so. So much for having a "bird brain." ;)

The flamingos had dark red food, I don't know if it was actual krill/shrimp or just food coloring, but they were extra pink so I'm going to go with they were receiving something in their food to make their feathers extra vibrant. They were pretty but I wish they were receiving their natural diet instead of possible chemicals just for visitor's benefit!

The third place we wanted to go see was the science museum but we were foolish and decided to wait until the day of to buy tickets. Because it's so new, it was completely sold out by the time we showed up, which was 10 minutes before opening! Plan B was to go to the zoo. Our weekend was very animal centered. 

This is supposed to be an anteater but the picture isn't great. 

 

The petting zoo is always my favorite.

 Ginger beard alert!!!