Seven Super Things at the Aquarium of the Pacifc

I am an aquarium snob.  But who wouldn’t be if  you have the Monterey Bay Aquarium in your backyard?  This means I rarely visit aquariums while traveling, because I worry they will fall short in comparison

But last fall we found ourselves with a full day free in Anaheim with our 12 year old daughter.  Our teen son was hanging out in Disneyland with his hockey team, but my daughter really isn’t into theme parks.  So we decided to check out the aquarium in nearby Long Beach, whose waterfront location was very appealing on this sunny day.

The Aquarium of the Pacific is much smaller than Monterey’s, but that was a good thing, as we only had a few hours.   And I quickly found that though smaller, there were actually many things that Monterey doesn’t have.  You see, the Monterey Bay Aquarium features local marine life, where the Long Beach aquarium has exhibits showcasing the entire Pacific Ocean, from Baja to Australia to The Bering Sea.
Here were our seven favorite exhibits:

The Lorikeet Forest, where you can offer a cup of nectar to the brightly colored birds

The Blue Cavern, where divers hand fed giant fish including sea bass

 

The touch pond were we could pet jellyfish

The comb jellyfish with their beautiful “Christmas lights”

The shark lagoon, home to a freshwater sawfish

Exotic-looking sea dragons camouflaged as leaves

Cute, though sometimes deadly, frogs including the infamous poison dart variety

 

(I don't recall if this guy was poisonous, but he had the best smile.)