Our 2nd week in Korea Austin actually had to work. His work schedule was 4pm-12am though, so he was available to help out/do stuff with us during the day. Plus, we had access to his work car as long as we didn't do anything too crazy.
We decided to do a trip to the 63 building aquarium. It sounds ominous, and a weird name for an aquarium, but turns out that's just the name of the entire building, which used to be one of the tallest in Seoul. It has an observation deck, wax museum, art gallery, aquarium, and tons of office buildings. 63 was located on the "island" of Yeouido, which is in the Han river, and is only an "island" because it is a little creek that separates the land from the shore of the river.
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| Japanese giant crab |
We walked in at the perfect time- they were doing a penguin show! Although all the shows and information was in Korean, it was still fun to see the trainer feeding the penguins. While Austin and I enjoyed that, Landon liked watching this seals swim around.
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| This says "Do no step on the fance" I think it is referring to the ledge underneath the glass exhibit |
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| I don't remember seeing this fish, so Austin must have taken this picture |
There were lots of fish upstairs to look at, along with some iguanas and river otters. They had the river otters set up with a cool exhibit where they could swim through tunnels over your head and to little platforms in the middle of the room. Unfortunately our otters just wanted to sleep, so we didn't see them using the space.
On the way downstairs they did some color therapy with different colored fish in different tanks. Landon liked going up and down the stairs, so we did lots of color therapy.
Downstairs there were more seals, sea lions, and other big fish tanks. Landon had a special time with the sea lions. You could just tell they were really smart and they could do lots of cool tricks which they demonstrated during a sea lion show.
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| The doctor fish |
They had this tank above with a little pop out box with holes just big enough for fingers. This is something I had never seen in an US aquarium! These little fishies like to eat dead skin! Sometimes they are used for pedicures and manicures by the rich or those wanting some amusement. We all tried sticking our fingers in the hole and the little fishies nibbled our dead skin right off. Landon was especially amused, although his fingers were not long enough to get down into the water, they were long enough to skim the water and then the fish would try to get him and he would pull his finger out and squeal!
It was a little frustrating not knowing any Korean because they had all these sign boards with times posted but we did not know what the signboards were saying other than the times. It was a small aquarium and we were done looking at all the fish in an hour or so, but we wanted to catch as many shows as possible before Landon's nap, so we stuck around. That bore fruit, because a few minutes later loud music started playing inviting everyone to the main tank. What followed was a solo water dancing performance inside the main fish tank. This girl was twirling around, going upside down etc while surrounded by all of these huge fish. That was another thing I had not seen the U.S. It was all to nice ballet music and everything.
After that, we waited a little longer and saw a sea lion show! That was fun, and Landon especially liked when they shot baskets. The trainer had a "sporty" sea lion who would do more athletic things, and another who could dance. In all it was a perfect little diversion from our hotel room on a rainy day, and we were in the car in time for Landon to nap!
P.S. I have never noticed the balloons they sell at all places that kids go. Well now I do and now I hate them. Why? Why try to get me to buy things for my kid to prevent them from having a meltdown in an already stimulating and overwhelming place? It is cruelty to parents. We spent at least 80% of our energy keeping Landon away from balloons at the aquarium.
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