Virginia Aquarium, Virginia Beach

The Virginia Aquarium is on the outskirts of Virginia Beach. It has two buildings separated by a nature trail that includes some viewing platforms along Owl Creek and an Adventure Park. We started our visit by trying to find parking in a very full parking lot. Once that was done, we got in line to buy tickets and enter the north building.

Virginia Aquarium (north building)

Welcoming sign

Bypassing the photo room (they take your picture and try to sell you the photo at the end of your visit), we enjoyed the upland river exhibit, with some catfish and other fresh-water fellows.

Catfish

The coastal river exhibit includes some more traditionally land animals, like snakes and turtles.

Too hot to come out

A massive turtle

A ferocious little crab with one big pincer!

Around the corner is the Komodo Dragon exhibit. We saw two of them. The exhibit has a spot to crawl underneath and peek up through a dome. Our youngest did that but did not stay long enough for me to get a picture since the dragon was headed straight for the dome!

Enjoying a rest

Getting a drink before attacking young children

The next exhibit was a two-story tank where visitors walk through a tunnel in the middle. Seeing fish above, to the left, and to the right was amazing.

Under a ray

One section of the aquarium is dedicated just to sharks. In addition to the big tank, side exhibits show the skeletons of sharks (made of cartilage, not bone) and lots of other interesting facts.

Shark and shadow

More rays

A mixed community

Another section is dedicated to sea turtles, massive creatures that move slowly and majestically.

Sea turtle

A dry touching pool let my son feel the hard shells of hermit crabs.

A hands-on exhibit!

We walked south to the other building which had an empty river otter exhibit (bummer!), and a very full area of jellies. While they live in the ocean, jellies are not considered fish and are a separate part of the animal tree, much like mushrooms are not considered plants even though they grow in the ground.

Creepy lighting for creepy creatures

Another touching pool let my son feel the top of the jellies. The curator had visitors (not me, I did not want to touch!) wash their hands before carefully feeling when the jellies flopped right-side up. They spent a lot of time sideways and upside down, though I suppose they don't think about it since they don't have brains, only nervous systems.

Touching a jelly

Another exhibit showed off amazing superpowers of some fish, like eels that live in the sand and rocks, only poking out to get food. We spent so much time talking there, I didn't take pictures.

The walk back to the car, back down the nature trail, took us past the Adventure Park, a high ropes adventure system that we did not try out. It looked very popular and had too many other children for my kids to be interested. Maybe sometime when it isn't spring break week?

Adventure Park (at least some of it)