Downtown Aquarium in Houston

We managed to get ourselves dressed and fed and ready by the crack of noon. We drove into the city for an afternoon at the Downtown Aquarium in Houston last weekend. We pulled into parking ($6.00) and found the third spot empty and waiting for us which was wonderful because the temp had already climbed to a sweltering ‘melting any ambition you felt in the air conditioning into a puddle of goo.’ We approached the aquarium and were delighted with the fountains and waterfalls kiddo exclaiming “Wow! I’ve never seen a waterfall off of a building before!” Dan and I stood in line while the spray from the big waterfall rained on us, we were pleased, cooled and excited. We bought the all day adventure pass ($15.99) so we could do everything, ride the train, the carousel, the gondolas, and anything else we hadn’t seem yet.

The aquarium was cool and dark and the fish beautiful. We wandered in and out of the exhibits staring at all the creatures. In comparison, it’s much smaller than the Shedd in Chicago however it didn’t have that aquarium smell. The same smell you experience in a small pet shop. I even commented to Dan about how clean and fresh it was and he agreed. This you’d think wouldn’t matter that much but a good smelling aquarium allows one to linger and let the kid watch the Blue Tangs for as long as she likes without feeling like you’re breathing grossness. It also wasn’t terribly crowded for a Sunday afternoon. We were able to walk right up to the glass at every exhibit and though Kiddo could have she didn’t opt to pet the sting rays or the house shoe crabs.

Next we entered the cool tunnel leading up to the white tigers who upon rounding the corner, we found wrestling on the floor not five feet in front of us behind glass. This was the first time we had a hard time seeing through a group of people so Dan lifted Kiddo high onto his shoulders. They are beautiful tigers and their little apartment behind the glass is immaculate. After a few minutes the crowd thinned and we were able to sit and watch the big cats lounge before heading out into the midway where we hopped onto the carousel without waiting. Kiddo road a lovely little seahorse and I a shark and the breeze from the ride cooled us. We managed to work up quite and appetite and before we rode anything else we decided to walk a little and have some lunch. So I asked and employee where to have lunch, of course he suggested right there but I explained the aquarium was only serving drinks and horderves in their restaurant and we wanted lunch. He pointed towards the Hard Rock Café next door and said there were restaurants that direction.

We walked a block and found the Hard Rock Café and some fancier places, I glanced at them as we strolled past and saw one had $45.00 entrees listed on the menu posted on the glass. Though I would’ve like sushi, Kiddo was calling for macaroni and cheese so we resigned ourselves to the Hard Rock discovering it was loud even at lunch. This is when I considered the fact that I might be old and fought back the urge to say to our very nice server “Cripes sonny! Is it always this loud in here? Can’t we turn this rock noise down so we can get a word in edgewise?” I didn’t, instead I bopped along munching nachos to “I’m Gonna Be” by the Proclaimers, who proclaimed they’d walk 500 miles feeling old. After recharging we headed back to the aquarium to ride the Gondolas and train.

The Gondola ride was a bit of a wait, and since I wasn’t expecting to be outside so much I began to worry for Kiddo’s skin. I didn’t smear her up with sunscreen that morning expecting we’d be mostly indoors, so I stood between her fair skin and the sun and the three minutes it took to get us boarded felt like ten. It was neat to reach the top and see out over the highway and try to guess what each building was, and again we liked the breeze the ride offered. It’s an opportune place to take pictures with the city as a backdrop. We almost left at this point and then Dan reading the map of the park realized we hadn’t seen the sharks yet and the way to do that was to stand in the long line for the train. I groaned, but we cued up and stood there dripping sweat waiting our turn and thankful to at least be in the shade for the wait. It turned out to be worth it, we rode into a little air conditioned tunnel and watched gobs of sharks swim over and next to us. Cameras snapped and when we’d had our memory cards full, the little train chugged on back where the kids next to the fountain squirted us in fun with water.














Upon Kiddo’s request we did one more trip through the aquarium revisiting the fish we liked best and discovering an African Grey who delivered a hearty wolf whistle at Kiddo garnering him the title of her “favorite animal at the aquarium bedsides the white tigers.” I liked the jelly fish, I could sit and watch them all day laze about the water. We were also able to meet the Eurasian Eagle Owl that resides there and the staff answered some hard questions about why the owl was big and had so many feathers from my five year old. Perhaps when Kiddo is older I’ll send her to one of the summer camps and she can feed the tigers and learn about animal rescue one of the many occupations she insists she will do (next to cowgirl, actress and helicopter mechanic.)