After Butterfly Wonderland, we did sit outside for maybe twenty minutes or half an hour, hoping Taylor would start to feel better. Luckily they did! So after that, we headed toward the OdySea Aquarium.


There were a ton of rays, which I really loved.


Seahorses!!


I was extremely charmed by the variety of clownfish! I don't think I've ever seen this many kinds before.




I have decided that this will be my ridiculous rich person thing. (The silly question about like... if you won the lottery and you'd already taken care of all the usual things like house/car/debt/taking care of loved ones, you already bought your fancy game system or whatever, and you're not allowed to donate it to charity, what utterly frivolous thing would you want?) I will demand my house be lit with globes of live fish.


Gila monsters, my beloved! I really do love them. Haven't ever seen any in the wild.


Aw, it's Bella! (Judgemental eye, lots of teeth... it's uncanny.)


These guys were so fun and strange to watch! They're paddlefish, and they're a species native to parts of the US. The nose shape is weird enough anyway...


...but then they open their mouths up (filtering out zooplankton to eat) and it's wild looking! And mildly offputting to see how bright red their gills get when the light comes through.


A fancy arawana.


This turtle, plastered against the wall. Camouflage!


A toucan!


The river otters were adorable! We were there right when they were doing a talk about them. They were very playful.

There's a big touch pool of different rays, which we also got to hear a talk about. 


This is Casper, the lightest colored of the cownose rays.


Two rays!


The octopus.


I know that lionfish are considered, like, a pest species, but they're so pretty.


Dramatic size difference between species of ray!

I also really like sea jellies. They're such strange creatures, and they're fun to watch.






Moon jellies were always one of my grandmother's favorites. (She volunteered at the Oregon Coast Aquarium for 25 years, so aquariums always do make me think of her.)


There was a really beautiful tank of tropical fish. Aided by some blacklight to make the colors extra vibrant, but full of so many beautiful fish! We watched everything in this tank for quite a while.




Sea turtle!

The aquarium advertises that it is the world's only "rotating aquarium," which was an interesting thing to see claimed, haha. Basically there's a rotating "theater" of sorts, where you sit, and then it rotates past several different enormous tanks with different animals. You get some live and some pre-recorded information about them all.


Groupers, a napping sea turtle, and more rays.


Such a classic shark pose!


One more of the clownfish. The little black and white ones and the ones that are mostly white with some orange and black are my favorites.