Audobon Aquarium of the Americas

Today Gabe had the day off so we finally had a family day in New Orleans. We started out by walking Bourbon Street since Gabe hadn't been yet on this trip. We walked pretty far down it then cut up to one of the main roads, which was very crowded. I guess some festival was starting that day so there was a lot of people. We ran into some young dance group and they were handing out beads so we had to get a shot of Avery with some beads on! On our way back, we went back to the Canal Street mall so Gabe could peek around real quick. Then we went back to the hotel and gave Avery lunch and then she took her nap. After nap, we headed to the Audobon Aquarium of the Americas. It was only about 3 blocks from our hotel so it was nice and close. I haven't been to an aquarium in years so I was looking forward to it. We timed it just right because right as we walked in, they were feeding the sting rays-that was pretty darn cool to watch! Could you imagine having that job getting in there and swimming with those things? Then we saw some spiny lobsters: Some other fish: I really think Avery liked it-she kept pointing to things: and she would grunt at things-it was too cute! They had the aquarium broken down into global areas (rainforest, caribbean, amazon, etc). The one section was set up like you were outside and they had these huge parrots sitting there-they were really pretty: Then it was off to the penguins! Again we were right in time for their feeding which was neat: Avery in the big shark jaw display: Avery and I: Seahorses (so cute!): Gabe's favorite-the white alligator! It was so still it was amazing-the thing barely even moved a muscle: They had a kids area where the kids could crawl around and they had a tank where you could "pet" a sting ray (which we opted out of). We let Avery out of her stroller and crawl around a bit. She loved this fish they had: We had a really nice time there-glad we went! After we finished our tour, we went back to Gordon Biersch for dinner since it was very good the first time we went. And it was really close to the hotel and aquarium so it was very convenient. Avery was making all of these silly faces when we were there: They gave her a coloring book that had fish on it so we were asking her "where are the fish?" and she would point to them (yes, she's so darn smart!): She also had her first taste of ketchup. She kept making faces when she tasted it, but kept signing for more-so we kept giving her more! It was funny! I took a video of it, but unfortunately can't get it to upload on here...bummer!

After dinner it was back to the hotel. Avery played a little before bed. She has started this new trick we call flopping and we caught it on tape:

It is an early night for all of us-we have to be up bright and early at 4:30am to catch our 7am flight tomorrow-ugh!