I love going to the Long Island Aquarium. I often go the week of my birthday, when you can get a free ticket. I’ve even gone in groups with my mom, grandma and best friend because we’re all birthday neighbors.
And with the Sunday of April 16 being gloomy and chilly, myself, my boyfriend AJ and his sister Amanda decided to take a day trip to Riverhead to see some amazing aquatic animals and mammals, and even butterflies. Heading there, we had Tropical Smoothie for breakfast, as well as some Burger King, so that we would remain sustained throughout the entire day. We were there from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., entertained every minute of it.
We started our journey through the aquarium by, of course, petting the sting rays. And then we checked out the butterflies exhibit, which is situated in an indoor, luscious garden. You can find butterflies every where you turn, some grouping together to enjoy fruits on various plates throughout the garden. The butterfly that sticks out the most, and is the hardest to get a picture of, would have to be the iridescent blue morpho butterflies. They often travel in pairs and small groups. But once they land and close their wings, you wouldn’t know of their bright colors because the exterior of the wings are a brown, white and yellow pattern. I said to my boyfriend, “it’s like a metaphor that beauty comes from within.”
Besides the butterflies and my corny sayings, we also enjoyed a small exhibit of bugs from around the world that were preserved behind glass, as well as a live bee-hive that was situated behind glass.
After spending an hour in what looks like heaven, we crossed the bridge that overlooks a huge pond of various fish, as well as a turtle tank, into where a lot of the exhibits are. We spent a few minutes at each tank, taking a close look at all the fish we could see and being encapsulated by the corals and sea anemones. We even saw some clown fish hanging out in sea anemones, which reminded us of the movie Finding Nemo.
The shark tank is always my favorite. It’s not often you can be face to face with a shark in a situation that wouldn’t be terrifying. Staring at them, you can see they’re amazing creatures.
Something I’ve never seen at the aquarium before, because I never went to look, was the octopus. Though this one was small in size, he sure was smart. I saw a child put his hand to the tank, and the octopus then reached out to meet his hand behind the glass. I was blown away!
We took time to watch the classic sea lion show, which echoes the shows I’ve watched as a kid when the aquarium was called Atlantis Marine World, and we got to see trainers feed the otters.
We were fished out at the end of the day, and traveled seven minutes to this cute restaurant Funchos. I got one of my favorite foods of all time… nachos. While the nachos were good, I wish the cheese was a bit more melty. But still, I’ll be back.