Texas, Day 2 and 3

No pictures were taken on day 2.  It was a day of travel.  We the alien country of Roswell, New Mexico and pulled into Richmond, Texas around midnight.  We were lucky to stay with Annika's uncle in a gorgeous house that one day I hope I can afford at least a quarter of that house.  So we'll just say our stay was VERY comfortable!!! 

The next day we woke up and drove out to Houston to spend the day.  Our first stop, an aquarium downtown.

We wrist banded up and headed in!

Jellyfish! The boys are fascinated with jellyfish and we're surprised to find out that they actually existed in real life and not just on the Spongebob cartoons!

A river boat picture spot right in the middle of the amphibian section. Kind of reminded me of "Swamp People." LOL...

This aquarium was AMAZING! There were so many cool things. Koen was in awe because the tank went up over his head!

Now for the hands on section.... I think they were petting some sort of crab-by thing here. Not the coolest thing to be petting in the tanks.

The "Coolest Thing to be Petting" award goes out to the sting rays, hands down! We hung out there for a while, watching and petting the sting rays.

They would swim right up to you and even come up out of the water for a little attention. They were VERY friendly rays.

You could go underneath the tank and watch them swim right over you!

Koen, old school diver-style.

Kael, ecstatic to be "swimmin' with the fishes!"

Now, I don't know how white tigers fit in with sting rays, sharks and other aquatic animals, but hey, I'm not complaining. It was awesome! They had a little picture area and the boys were scared to get close.

...and if they weren't cool enough to look at, the tigers had an "argument." We used to going to the zoo and seeing docile animals who look half dead, but this... call it a trip to the aquarium/zoo/thing, on crack!

Yes there is a piece of glass between child and animal. I'm impressed with their glass cleaning skills. This particular white tiger loved Koen. He sat there for a few minutes and just looked at him... so cool, creepy, but cool.

SMILE!

We hopped on a Ferris Wheel-style ride that took you pretty high up.

Jace is not too excited by the height.

All aboard! We hopped on a train to sharksville. (that's not really the name, I just added it for entertainment purposes, you're welcome.)

The train stops in a tunnel where you're surrounded by various kinds of sharks.

Even amongst the sharks they manage to keep their cool...

Onto the Carousel!

...and just when you thought the place couldn't get any cooler you find this! After a very hot (and humid) day we let the boys unwind in the fountains...

Koey

Kael dousing Jace

We worked up quite the appetite so we headed across the street to the Hard Rock Cafe, and no, we didn't get a t-shirt.

We had so much fun we dried off and went through again! Here we go!!

All aboard!

Shark Tunnel

The Shark Train

Koen driving the boat...

Kissin' a croc.

When we went back to the sting ray exhibit we pretty much had the place to ourselves. So we spent another hour chillin with some rays.

After a VERY eventful day we went back to the house and crashed!