In May Kevin had the brilliant idea to take James to the Aquarium of the Pacific (a.k.a. the Long Beach Aquarium). We found out they had a good deal on annual passes, so we bought passes for James's first year of life, and it turns out it was a great buy. On the first day it was just the three of us and James loved watching the fishies. I think the lights reflecting through the water and bouncing off the fish scales was mesmerizing to him. We would hold him up in front of the glass and he was perfectly content to just watch the movement and flashing lights through the water. He also liked the sharks and the sea lions, which were big and stark in contrast with all of the blue water. Most of the aquarium pictures in the slideshow below are from that first visit.
The next week Kevin's nephew Ryan and his wife Denice were in town from Wisconsin, so we all went back up to Long Beach and went on a whale-watching cruise. We didn't see any whales, but we saw lots of dolphins and sea lions. A few minutes into the cruise James got a faceful of sea-wind and didn't like that, so I took him downstairs, fed him, bundled him up, and he slept through the rest of the cruise! It's a good thing he was free! After the cruise we went back into the aquarium for another visit, and James loved it again. A couple of aquarium pictures in the slideshow below are from this visit, and the boat pictures are also from this visit.
We also found out that Cindy's sister Jeanine and her family had annual passes to the aquarium, so this week Cindy and James met Jeanine's family up in Long Beach and spent the day together at the aquarium. On this visit James seemed more interested in people-watching as all he had to do was catch the eye of any of his cousin and then he was instantly the center of attention. Everybody just loves this little guy! :)