Day 6 ~ Aquarium, Boardwalk, And Jets

Who doesn't love an Aquarium?
(If you are one of those people you can skip over this whole first half)

Richard, Michele and Ryan...
Turtles!

 What a cute little tooshie : )

This is one of my favorite pics of all time... photo bombed by a turtle!

This is "Sunny" the Box Turtle, she was rescued.

 It is so cool being able to see them underwater...

 I do not know what these fish are and I did not take pics of the signs, oops. I was watching the turtle and this little girl.

Monitor Lizard ~ He looks like he is smiling to me : )

 There was a bubble so you could stand inside and the Monitor Lizard would walk around and over you... 

 Ryan did it... He went in the bubble!

This is one of my most favorite things. Walk-Through Tunnel under the sea.

 Sharks and Rays and Coral and Fish of all kinds

Rays are so awesome

 Look at all the little blue faces (: o) on the rocks

All the colors!

 Angel Fish and the loooong tail of a Ray

Okay... enough of the tunnel. On to the next thing ~

And the award for the Most Bizarre goes to...

 This is a Female False Gharial. She didn't move at all, not even a blink. She is 12 years old and is endangered. We watched her for a while and she never made the slightest movement to prove she is real. But the volunteer assured us she was. He said she can "freeze" underwater like that for 20-30 minutes. Check out those teeth!

I did it again...
I don't remember what these are they are just cute

Life-Size model of a Humpback Whale hanging from the ceiling
You can see the size comparison with the people standing underneath it

Dolphin skeleton ~ We thought this was really interesting.

Jelly Fish

There was a Nursery for baby Sea Turtles

Sharks!

Sea Turtles!!!!!

We got to pet baby Rays
They would come right up to our hands

 One was like a little puppy that liked his head scratched : )

Puffer Fish

Half puffed ~ 

And last...

The Harbor Seals

We watched them swim around and around, mostly upside-down, while we waited for our bus

On to The Boardwalk at Virginia Beach

 Para Sailing and Navy Ships

We rented a 4-person bike to ride

But only 3 of us could pedal and it was hard with the extra dead weight
That would be me
:-(
We were headed for Neptune at the end of the Boardwalk
You can just barely see him in this photo...

I didn't know you could ride horses on the beach
You can actually rent them

We stopped for lunch and drinks

After refueling and some delicious refreshments the 3 pedallers are ready to go again

But it was really a work-out and this is how close we got to Neptune when we decided to turn back

I just had to get a photo of this... L O V E

And that was the end of our ride on The Boardwalk
It rained on us so we took refuge in a restaurant, had some more refreshments then did a little shopping
Then we took the bus back to the campground to enjoy a campfire, a weiner roast, S'mores and refreshing beverages ;-)
And... Jets!

We heard that there was going to be an Air Show over the weekend. Unfortunately, we hadn't known this ahead of time so we could arrange to go. But, it was a treat for us to watch them practicing anyway.

~ The End of Day 6 ~

Patty Hagedorn Photography