By traveler 
I love aquariums. I always try to have one in my home, even a one or two gallon one, and I imagine having a 50-gallon saltwater tank filled with fish.
Since that isn’t likely to happen, I settle for visiting aquariums, and I now live within a short drive to the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Since the city is in Maryland, I decided to use the visit as my DMV exploration entry for June.
I left early enough to have lunch at a restaurant one of my brothers recommended. I’m afraid I didn’t really like the fish filet I ordered. Despite this, I want to go back when I can try their pasta, which looks very tasty.
The National Aquarium is in the Baltimore Inner Harbor area where several cruise tours that look like possibilities on future trips were based. I had come on a Friday afternoon when the aquarium offered a half price deal for tickets. I had hoped that the timing would make for a lighter attendance, but boy was I wrong!! The halls were packed!! Still, it was great to see so many children who seemed so excited about the tanks in attendance.
I walked the main level, starting with a massive set of teeth labelled Megalodon Jaws–which is an extinct species of shark, where there was a huge tank recreating a reef, filled with a variety of fish–including sharks–and plant life. Most visitors travelled from floor to floor using escalators too narrow for my walker, so a staff person suggested I take one of the elevators to the top floor and work my way down.
Each floor had different environments displayed. I’ve put a handful of pictures below:
The rest of the pictures are available at http://www.singin1.pics/piwigo/index.php?/category/National-Aquarium-062824.
The later it was, the more people there seem to be. I stopped without seeing the third or second floors and decided to come back another day when hopefully it would be less crowded.
Across the plaza from the aquarium was a seafood restaurant that dragged me without any resistance to its outdoor seating area. I crossed my fingers and ordered their blackened salmon (I have found previous effort to blacken salmon to result in being, like steak, overcooked or dry). Their preparation of the salmon was extraordinary, and I will order it and their virgin pina colada again. Plus, sitting on the water while eating just made it even more enjoyable.
I am looking forward to many more of these one-day excursions.