While talking with Jackson earlier this week, we wanted to do something this weekend. However, since the air was extra spicy from Canada being on fire, I decided indoor activities were preferable, and thus I suggested the Cleveland Aquarium, which I had not visited yet.
We invited Bobby and his Girlfriend Star to join us, and while bobby decided to come, Star apparently hates fish, and decided to skip this one.
The morning of, Bobby also decided to stay home, since he didn't get much sleep, and wasn't feeling great, ultimately it was just Jackson and I.
The traffic in Cleveland was pretty bad, and it seems there was a sports ball game going on. Nevertheless, we made it to the Aquarium in one piece.
The aquarium is built inside of an old factory, which is a cool use of an old building. When we arrived, there was barely anyone else there, which made getting in super easy.
The inside was pretty dark, and I had a lot of difficulty taking pictures in focus, but hey, you can't always be a genius photographer.
There were some cute turtles, and one of them was clearly posing for the camera
Some of the fish in the central tank were having a meeting.
We're friends now.
Next up was the Asian section, which had a lot of nice decoration.
The next section was more South American focused, with various Amazon river fish, and the oft misunderstood Piranha. They didn't seem too thrilled about my picture taking antics, though.
The star of the show in the middle tank was a weird flat nose turtle, who gave a big yawn.
Next up is the cyberpunk steampunk zone? I think it was mostly reef fish.
There was a cool hallway with some fancy seahorses
Next up is the stingray zone, where you can put your had in the tank to try and touch them. It seemed like the rays weren't super down for it though, since they mostly stayed out of reach.
-- TODO add mantayray video
Next up is jellyfish, and some other ocean / reef fish. The clowns also get a special mention.
There was a smaller tank to the side where you could touch other ocean creatures, and I got a picture (with permission) of one of the other guests befrinding a shrimpy boy.
Next up is the shark zone. There was a big tank, with a ship in the middle that they should really get around to fixing one of these days.
And finally, the highlight of any aquarium: the tunnel.
After coming out the other side of the tunnel, we decided to go for another round, since you can never have too much shark tunnel.
After round 2, we decided it was time to leave, and find food. After poking around the gift shop for a bit, we made our way to the exit.
When we arrived, there was a ship leaving, so after finishing our aquarium adventure, we wandered over to the dock area to see if there was any info about what the boat was or where it was going or if it had food. The boat had long since left though, so we just chilled by the river for awhile.
After, we decided to try walking to a nearby resteraunt, across a maybe closed bridge.
Turns out the bridge was indeed very closed, so we headed back to the car while looking for other places to get food. Jackson wanted something refreshing, and we eventually found "Johhy Mango World Cafe and Bar", which looked excellent, so we hit the road.
It turned out to be a lovely little corner eatery, with a lively atmosphere and a ton of interesting vegan options. Most importantly, they had yogurt smoothies, which is Jackson's favorite food.
I had a vietnamese crepe, with shrimp, mushrooms, and sprouts, as well as a pinapple granola waffle, which I shared with Jackson. Jackson had a jackfruit breakfast quesadilla, which was prepared to taste like pulled pork.
We also got our fruity yogurt smoothies, which gave Jackson a religious experience. His was mango, and mine was a specially made watermelon, which was very tasty.
Once we got home, After Jackson verified his freedom with his parents, I went ahead and purchased tickets to a camp site at Kelley's Island in september, for our planned camping trip, to which Wally is also cordially invited.
Then Jackson played Crab Champions for awhile, and then I showed him some Honkai Star Rail gameplay, while we talked about the nuances of chinese culture, and government spying.