Our little family got to take a peek at the new exhibit at SEA LIFE Arizona this past week. Octopus Hideout is PRICELESS. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest we were lucky enough to go to our local Aquarium at Point Defiance Park weekly with my mom. I have never seen such an active octopus nor have I been able to see one so close before.
Thankfully no wild encounters at the Narrows Bridge… where the world’s biggest octopus lives… but I have been stung by a jelly fish. Those babies burn, burn, burn. Those “cures” you hear about don’t help like you would think they would. I ran around like my leg was on fire… because it was, essentially.
Well living out in the desert I don’t want to deprive my kids of growing up knowing about the ocean-so thankfully we can venture out to SEA LIFE Arizona to escape the heat and enter a world of it’s own. The lay out is quite impressive when you think of the fact that the Aquarium is at a mall. You weave in and out of rooms- through tunnels-gang planks-and are always surrounded by sea life. I LOVE how everything is kid-friendly, touchable, and the DIVE LOG BOOK stamp adventure. Ever since my little man turned two this has been a favorite. He proudly finds the next station and stamps his book. At then end if they recover all of the stamps they receive a cute little prize. But honestly the independent adventure is a prize in itself.
Thankful that the hubby could flex-time at work so that he could join us on our pirate adventure. At least that’s what Raymond called it. There were quite a few, “Yo-Ho’s” and of course I added in a couple, “Shiver me timbers” just for good measure.
Fish are friends, not food.
I definitely enjoyed quoting Finding Nemo. Thankfully my husband just chuckled along and joined in the chorus of, “Shark Bait-OO-AH-AH”.
The new Octopus Hideout exhibit features five tanks of cephalopods: Common Cuttlefish, Dwarf Cuttlefish, Nautilus, Mantis Shrimp, and the beautiful Giant Pacific Octopus. Raymond’s favorite were the Common Cuttlefish as we were able to watch them eat breakfast and it was pretty incredible how they used their two tentacles to catch the food… looked like a frog catching a fly! Emma Marie was enthralled with the octopus! She was definitely unsure about being so close to her, but she just couldn’t walk away. Loved that we could put our hands on the tank and she would use her large tentacles to check us out. Never have I ever been able to see an octopus travel around their tank. She did multiple laps around and checked everyone out. Pretty cool for this Pacific Northwestener.
Emma Marie would not stop talking about the octopus… you can see her little hands trying to explain what she was talking about.
The BEST part of SEA LIFE Arizona are all of the tunnels, look outs, see-through floors, and these fabulous little fish eyes. You get right in the action. Love being so close to the sea life!
I whole-heartedly recommend checking out SEA LIFE Arizona! Throughout the year they have different events you can attend like Santa in the Dive Tank and coming up the Octonauts are going to be visiting this summer! My two nieces are in LOVE with the Octonauts and I am hopeful we will be able to take them to the event to meet their favorite Sea Life Helpers. For moms with little ones I recommend bringing a carrier-and not a stroller. We used a stroller once and the tunnels(which makes the experience that much cooler) are not stroller friendly. I used an Ergo last time with Em when she was 10 months and have just let them roam free after she turned one.
For more information about events you can check out SEA LIFE Arizona: HERE.
Did you grow up going to an aquarium? Have you been to SEA LIFE Arizona before?
I definitely took it for granted when I was little that my mom took all three of us to the zoo and aquarium ALL. THE. TIME. I am tremendously thankful that she did and am trying my hardest to give my children life experiences out here in the desert.
