Showing posts with label flowers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flowers. Show all posts

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Dallas World Aquarium


Recently, we drove to Dallas and ate at one of the Pappadeaux restaurants.
 After that we went to the Dallas World Aquarium. I don't know about you, but when I think about an aquarium; I picture fish and other aquatic animals. If you come to the D.W.A. just wanting aquatics then you're in for a surprise! As you walk up to the entrance, there are cages that hold exotic birds, fish ponds, and turtles. When we got to the entry booth, we were in for another surprise that wasn't so good. This surprise was the price; it was seventy-five dollars for two adults and two children. After my family and I walked up a set of stairs felt we were transported to a whole different country.
The room we were in was huge and there were several stories. There was a waterfall going all the way down and a pond that housed a manatee, fish, and turtles.  


The first stop was kind of like the canopy of a rain forest; we could see all the way up and down. In the trees we got to see monkeys that were playing and grooming each other. You could see all types of  exotic birds which were flying around.

As you walked down a little way there was a station where you could feed birds blueberries and on the other side you could see a small type of monkey.

At the second station there was an enclosed area that had different types of birds and Golden Tamarinds. Next to this enclosure, they had a little store where you could buy inexpensive food for an expensive price. In front of this little store there was a tree that a sloth was sleeping in.
Before you got to the third station there was a insect area, and an otter pool with no otters inside.

The third station was at the bottom or the waterfall and you could see crocodiles and turtles in the pond. You could also see ducks, swans, and other birds.

When we had reached the bottom of the rainforest  we followed the map down to a different part of the aquarium. Before we walked down to our destination, we got to see below the rainforest's pond. Here, there was a full glass wall where we could see fish and a white manatee.

As we continued our walk we passed the restrooms and a theater that was not active. Next, we entered a room that had large aquariums on the walls that held  the fish from different countries. Each tank had the name of a country above and the fish that lived in that country below. In a large corner of the room was a cafe area where you could eat and watch the fish.
It was kind of hard to take pictures in here because of the lighting, so I apologize for the quality of fish photos.


After touring the Fish of the World exhibit, we moved on to the penguin exhibit. The penguin exhibit was in an outside area that had a pond with a stream for the penguins to swim in. There were only three to four penguins out so we didn't spend a long time over there. Next to the penguins was a large group of reptiles that we observed. 

Our next destination at the aquarium was the shark tank. The tank that held the sharks was a huge pool which had a tunnel that was going through the middle of it. It was an extremely neat opportunity because there were many different types of sharks that we could watch  up close but safely. The exit of the aquarium came out at the gift shop, so we looked around a little before we left.

Some of my favorite parts of the aquarium were the signs that they had telling in sharks and the open rain forest area.

Advice- 
If you are homeschooled I would recommend not visiting in the summer because it was busy the day we went. Also, I would look for discounts or coupons before going.




Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Agriculture Identification Contest

Yesterday, I participated in a Texas Agriculture Identification Contest at the Academic Rodeo in the East Texas State Fairgrounds. The  Academic Rodeo is where people from public, private, and homeschools all over East Texas come and participate in one or more of 14 different contests which includes the agriculture  identification contest, fashion show, writing and art contests, one act play, Lego mindset etc. At the AG ID contest you basically have to identify the product, answer if the product grows above or below ground. and what it classifies as. Today I found out how I placed. I placed 1st place over all the other middle school kids.


*picture taken from http://www.etstatefair.com

Sunday, February 19, 2012

4-H Photography


Each year 4-H has a Photography Contest and my sister and I both entered it this year. After looking through hundreds of pictures that I took I found these. The hard part about the photo contest is you can only enter one picture per category so I wasn't able to enter all of mine. These are the pictures I entered. Which one is your favorite?