We had an amazing day today at the Oceanographic!  Opened in 2002, the aquarium is the largest one in Europe housing thousands of types of fish and sea mammals as well as birds.  Two 30 meter and 70 meter long, clear domed tunnels let us feel like we were in the tanks with the sharks, eels and other bright, colorful fish.  All of the enclosures and habitats were large and gave the animals plenty of room to swim. Each area of the aquarium portrayed a different area of the world featuring its unique floral and fauna from the Medittereaean, the Red Sea, and the Carribean, to the Arctic Ocean.  It was all breathtaking.

A huge auditorium gave us a place to rest and enjoy the full “stage” that housed another aquarium flanked on both sides by drapes as if we were watching a stage production or musical…it was actually like a ballet.

The butterfly world was a peaceful place to take in a part of nature that is always fascinating.  I love watching them flit around chasing each other or feasting on a bowl of fruit.  The chameleon was fun to watch also.

We spent about 20 minutes watching the dolphin show and I did manage to get a pretty good movie of it on my camera but couldn’t download it to the blog so I’ll have to show it to everyone when I see you.  It is always fun watching dolphins.

I have to show off my favorite bird but I have no idea what kind he was.  Just cute!

This green eel was beautiful but I had to get Joey to stand next to him to give an idea of how big he was.

We stopped for a bite to eat…well, five bites.  Joey had cheese and crackers and Jocelyn and I had an energy bar.  Later in the day, we treated ourselves to ice cream.  Joce had cocoa flavor and I had pistachio…cocoa comes from beans and pistachios are nuts so they are healthy, right?

A special feature was the Aviary where dozens or bright colorful birds flew above our heads, swam in the clear, clean ponds or, like two of them did, simply sat on the sidewalk and had their picture taken as if they were being paid to do so.  The birds were housed in a huge globe-shaped complex so they had room to fly high and the ponds are filled with vast amounts of plants for the birds to feed on and live safely in amongst them.

It was just a great day.  I have to end this blog on a fun note.  I think the sun was getting to us and we were acting a bit silly so the picture below shows what happened. We are titling it…Granny Version of a Selfie.