I have been pretty open about the fact that I am not a very good photographer. I don't even think I rate as an amateur. Maybe I am over estimating myself but I believe I would officially rank at whatever designation is directly below "amateur photographer". Perhaps it is "novice". Perhaps it is "guy who shoots pictures with one hand while trying to carry his kid's ice cream cone in the other."
Ok I lied. It's my ice cream cone. And it's not one cone. It is two. And they are waffle cones filled with 3 toppings each.
But back to my lack of photography skills.
Last week my wife, ten year old daughter, twelve year old son and I visited Canada. One of the places we visited was Ripley's Aquarium of Canada located in the heart of Toronto.
As I walked around the Aquarium, I kept thinking to myself, "I wish one of the talented photographers from steemit were here to take pictures of all of these amazing creatures." But they weren't. So I did my best with my pocket sized Sony Cybershot.
I did not zoom in for any of these. I don't think I know how... OK I know how to do that but these creatures were so close, I never had to.
When I was a kid in the 1980's, there was a TV show called Ripley's Believe it or Not hosted by Jack Palance (and his very creepy voice). The show was based on a "magazine" that reported amazing yet real stories from around the world.
I'll go with not on this one.
Even as a kid I always watched the show with a skeptical eye. As a result, whenever I hear the world "Ripley's" I immediately think whatever comes next will be sensational and at the very least bordering on fake.
Therefore, when I saw we were staying near Ripley's Aquarium of Canada, I pictured a small storefront with a huckster outside barking at people to pay two bits for a glimpse at a mermaid. I figured we would see "real" two headed or perhaps headless fish, sea monkeys and maybe an aquatic snipe or two.
Instead, here is what I saw...
This photo was not taken by me. Here is the link to the photo posted on the web.
This was not the Ripley's I was expecting. Instead, I was treated to the most incredible Aquarium I have ever seen.
The aquarium was HUMONGOUS. It was so well organized, that it was impossible to miss anything. I found that simply amazing.
As soon as we walked in, we could see a children's area on a level below us.
Photo from Ripley's Aquarium of Canada website
Knowing that the kids area would soon be swamped, we raced past all of the other exhibits so that my kids could pet the horseshoe crabs, climb on the play structure, and get a little too close to a shark. They loved it!
After several minutes we doubled back to the entrance of the aquarium and began our leisurely stroll thorough one of the most amazing places I have ever been. I could easily fill this post with 100 pictures... but I will stick to the highlights.
The aquarium houses just about every type of fish I could imagine. Although all of the exhibits were amazing, a few definitely stood out.
When I first saw this Jellyfish tank, I honestly thought it was a video screen.
They were real.. and they were spectacular.
After staring in awe at the jellyfish, we proceed to stumble across a large tank that was conducting a scheduled feeding. (We were very lucky to witness this).
In addition to the other hands on areas in the kids' section, we also discovered a tank of shrimp that would "clean" your skin.
The shrimp "clean" by eating the dead skin off of your hand. Yum!!!
The highlight of the aquarium were the sharks. There were so many sharks that I thought I was in a Sharknado. (I am very sorry. I believe every American has had a message planted in their subconscious which requires them to make a Sharknado reference every time the word "shark" is used. If it makes you feel any better I will punish myself by watching a Tara Reid movie.)
If that were the only shark we had seen, it still would have been cool but that would be silly. This place was loaded with sharks. They were also housed in one of the coolest things I have ever seen.
The aquarium features a huge transparent tube shaped tank. They provide a moving walkway to stand on while it slowly takes you through the gigantic tube. During the trip, patrons come ridiculously close to many sharks.
Let the Sharknado commence!!!
Again, none of those required a zoom. The sharks were that close. This was lucky for me because I may have dropped my ice cream had I needed to zoom in.
As a cherry on top of the experience, there is a tube that passes through a tank filled with fish and... sharks!!!! Kids can crawl through the tube and experience the feeling of being surrounded by sharks. As you can see, adults can also climb through... if they are dumb and want to feel like they are surrounded by sharks.
I had a ton of fun and learned quite a bit about real fish at the Ripley's Aquarium of Canada... believe it or not!
All images and the GIF created by me with the exception of 1, 2, 3