Last Saturday we took our first trip to the brand new aquarium in Cleveland. They've located it inside the old powerhouse building in the flats, which was redeveloped to house this awesome new attraction. Since the building is on the national register of historic places, developers had to leave a lot of the aspects of the building in their original condition. This forced them to get creative incorporating the exhibits into the existing architecture. The result is an unexpected mix of old and new --- industrial and aquatic.
FUN.
Pretty little fish dart in and out of exotic coral tucked inside rough brick alcoves running alongside original corridors through the building. There's a smokestack hovering overhead where lobsters totter across a tank suspended below it. There's a huge touch pool with stingrays, starfish and other neat stuff for fondling. Not to mention the 150 foot long plexiglass tunnel and 7 foot long sharks.
The whole place is kinda eerie - definitely cool.
We bought ourselves an annual pass.
The aquarium is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tickets are $21.95 for ages 13 and older, and $15.95 for children 2 to 12. Parking is $3 on weekdays and $5 on weekends. Weekends are still crazy busy, expect about an hour wait to get in, and strollers and wagons are a no go. Your best bet is to go on a weekday and to buy tickets online in advance to cut down on your wait time. And if you get an annual pass and you can skip straight to the front of the line. Worth it!
Ok, I do not really consider myself claustrophobic, but that tunnel just in pictures caused me to take a deep breath and push away a possible anxiety attack. Good chance it is all the surrounding water, since I am, in fact, fairly terrified of water like that! I think I will have to pass on this - but - very nice pictures!!!
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