My Daughter Got To Play "With" Penguins

in #travel5 years ago

In November we took a trip to Gatlinburg, TN with the goal of seeing Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies. My husband and I thought it would be fun to take our toddler to see all the fish while she is still two years old. Everything is free for two year olds and younger so it was a good time to take her on a vacation.

The thing about two year olds is they have an attention span of two seconds. My daughter, Little Rabbit, couldn't have cared less about the fish or attractions. Her favorite part of the early part of the aquarium were benches. She wanted to climb on and over benches. Little Rabbit is a big time climber so naturally she enjoyed the one thing in the whole aquarium she could climb on.

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Recently, the aquarium added a new penguin exhibit. I figured she would love the penguins because she loves these videos of penguins singing nursery rhymes and she has some stuffed penguins she loves. We arrived at the "Penguin Playhouse" and my husband and I were sure she'd be really happy....she didn't care. :)

The One Part of the Aquarium She Loved: The Penguin Tunnels

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The aquarium was designed with kids in mind. Underneath the penguin enclosure they build clear see through tunnels. The tunnels were under water. If you go into these tunnels you can go through the penguin enclosure and see water on all sides and penguins above you. Little Rabbit went crazy for it. She kept wanting to go through it over and over. I went with her the first time to check it out then I let her go through alone. My husband stood at one opening and I stood at the other so we could catch her coming out.

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There was another little girl around the age of three. She and Little Rabbit seemed to enjoy one another's company and the two kept going through the tunnels together. After a bit a couple toddler boys joined in going through the tunnel. It was cute. Eventually, Little Rabbit was ready to make a break for it and came out of the tunnel and ran for the hallway towards the exit.

I'm so glad they had this neat little tunnel under the penguin house. I don't think any of the kids going through the tunnel stopped to marvel at the penguins and water through the see through walls for more than a few seconds. The kids didn't care about that but enjoyed being free of their parents grasps to run free with one another. It was very smart of the aquarium to put in kid sized tunnels.

It'll be much more fun taking Little Rabbit on trips when she can say complete sentences and can comprehend the world around her better. She's still so young. I'm not in a hurry for her to get bigger though. I wish I had more time to enjoy her being so small.

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ahh... that's a really cool photo... hope to see more about that...what Cam did you use? greetings from the south

At least she found something fun there! I've always wanted to go to one of those ones with the big tunnel through a shark tank or something like that.

I haven't posted photos yet but that's the big part of the aquarium. They have tunnels through the shark tanks. You stand on a moving sidewalk and it takes you through the shark tank and you are surrounded on three sides by fish. It's pretty neat.

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