Hi! Gma and Gpa Adventures do the St. Louis Aquarium at Union Station in St. Louis, Missouri.
There's the entrance right behind us. And we got our tickets online so we
don't have to stay in a long line.
It's $25 for an adult, $18 for a child,
Seniors 65 and over, $20. And military and first responders are $20. 2 and under, free.
So you can also get annual passes for $55.
But you can even get it a little cheaper if you
do a Combo Ticket. If you do the Aquarium and the St. Louis Wheel or the Carousel.
So that's what we did.
Are you excited, Donna? Yes, let's see what's in there!
I heard there's a big shark in there. Oh, I hope so. Let's go!
And if you've already
bought your ticket ahead of time, you just bring it to them here at the
entrance and they'll scan it for you.
Welcome to the Aquarium!
When you folks are ready,
walk this way to the trains.
The next one should be coming up soon.
Oh, this is pretty in here.
This says, "The St. Louis Aquarium at Union Station".
This big clockface is really cool...and it's actually an aquarium.
It's a real working clock!
While you're waiting on a train, which we don't really know what that means at
this point, you get a cool light show.
There's two archways there, and they say, "To Trains".
So we don't know if that's an actual
train or what that means.
Looks like we're walking into a giant train car.
Okay, all aboard!
Wonderful!
My name is Brenda. I'll be your conductor today on the Aquarium Express.
So if you start to
experience any dizziness or motion sickness, we won't actually be moving, so
if you close your eyes or look at one of the farther windows, that should take
care of it.
Full speed ahead!
It actually feels like you're riding it.
"We start our journey on September 1st, 1894, when the first
train departed Union Station".
The seats vibrate, you feel like you're moving.
"Welcome to the St. Louis Aquarium at Union Station. Please take all of your
belongings as you exit the train".
Two thumbs up. That was pretty cool, yeah!
Just like a tour of the city in a flying train. It went underwater. You can
kind of feel the movement...that was pretty cool.
Right as you get off the
train ride, the first thing you come to is the Confluence Gallery.
Right there, are fish of the Missouri and Mississippi.
You're going to see some white and black crappie, some bluegill,
largemouth bass, two different kinds of catfish. The Channel Cat and the Blue Cat.
There's a Catfish. I'd recognize those whiskers anywhere.
Look at these two.
This guy...I don't know what he is. he has a giant
nose. Is that a gar?
Look they're fighting each other, like two brothers in their fighting.
I want in there, no you can't, I want it there, no you can't. Break it up, guys.
This is the aquarium map. It says please select the animal.
So it's called a Longnose Gar. I didn't
even know that was in Mississippi. That's cool.
This can really teach the kids, too, about the different fish. You can select the
tank that you're at, and it'll show you what kind of fish are in there, and tell
you something about every species. So pretty cool, pretty educational.
This is a scavenger hunt type thing. This is Station One.
You scan a game card.
And there's even fish overhead.
They're swimming right above us...that's cool.
And over there is a tank full of what they call Doctor Fish.
You can put your hand in the water and they come and nibble on your fingers.
What does it feel like? It feels like your hand's kind of vibrating a little.
Like your hand falls asleep. Like it tingles a little bit.
That is really weird! And they're called Doctor Fish?
Or Red Garra. They're from Western Asia.
They're used in spas all around the world for manicures and pedicures.
You can come to the St. Louis Aquarium and get a free spa treatment.
It says please wash your hands
before and after touching the animals.
So now we're walking around the
corner after Stan had a spa treatment.
I was explaining to the
children that if you see a scuff mark on one of the fish's heads,
it's because when they feed them in the morning, it's a frenzy, and they're going at it, they don't even see that it's another one of their own kind. Oh my goodness!
Ahhhh...it's an Otter.
A North American River Otter.
They're good swimmers.
There they are!
Hi, buddy.
Okay, so how long can I hold my breath? Quite a bit.
I can hold my breath up to eight minutes.
But eight minutes is a really long time,
so I prefer just to do about one or two minutes and then a lot of times I'll go back up for air.
Thanks for coming guys! Bye!
There's a tiny little frog in there. Isn't that cute...it's so cute.
This is called the Sand Table.
Kids and parents alike love playing in the sand.
That's where we started on the
first floor.
Now we're going up to the second floor.
And to your right as you
get off the escalator is the river otter exhibit.
We can see their play area
downstairs in that tank, but this is where they hang out all day when they're
not in the water.
That's them over there playing.
There's a lot of open
air exhibits up here. Some of which are hands-on.
We didn't see any maps that
they handed out but there are these screens all over. So you can access an
aquarium map anytime you want to. And it'll tell you on the screen where you
are in relation to the map. "You are here."
Right by the River Otters, there's an
animal encounter area.
Are they poisonous?
These guys are not. These are not
venomous snakes. These guys are constrictors. So that means they'll
squeeze their prey when they want to find something to eat.
And so by the time that Nugget here is full grown, he'll be anywhere from 100 to 150 pounds or so.
So they get quite large.
So this is called the Stream Water Table River Play Zone. Kids can actually just
play in the water. Things that will let the water come through.
And there's houses and boats in here.
Ahhhh. Cool!
Are they snapping turtles? They are Red Ear Sliders and Cumberland Sliders.
The Red Ears are notable by their red ear-like markings on the side of their head.
And there's also the Cumberland Sliders. They are the same except they have yellow on the
side of their heads.
This one is a hands-on exhibit. She said you can touch
anything that's in here.
There's urchins, shrimp,
starfish, a decorator crab over there.
Everything in here is alive and real!
You can touch anything you see, just very gentle, two fingers. and please don't
pick anyone up and move them.
Feels hard, a little weird!
And this is Lord Stanley. He was officially the first resident of
the St. Louis Aquarium. And they named him Lord Stanley because
the St. Louis Blues won the Stanley Cup Championship in 2019.
So that's kind of his namesake.
That's cool! Its got a lot of blue on him...which matches the
St. Louis Blues.
This is the stingray tank.
They swim around and you're allowed to touch them.
Here comes another one...this guy's bigger.
Okay, Stan, how did that feel?
It's a little slimy.
Real slick.
There's a bigger one right there. Must be
like the poppa or the mama.
Here's one.
This is a baby Pac-man Frog.
Their names Pac-Man because of the shape of their body.
And they are very round, but they're also about half mouths. So they look like
a little video game. But more properly they're called the Chacoan Horned Frog.
There's about seven different species of horned frogs. They get that name because
those little horns that they have right above their eyes.
So this is kind of like
the where the kids can touch and feel different things.
That's the Stingray Encounter right there. That's where the Sea Urchins, and the Starfish were.
And then there's where the Frog was.
This guy is a Loggerhead Sea Turtle.
The largest sea turtle species we have on planet earth.
A really beautiful, graceful species. It is endangered, so we're working on
protecting them. But they have this really strong jaw here, really sharp beak,
that all turtles have. But these guys eat some of the softest things in the ocean.
These guys eat jelly fish.
Little fish tanks along the wall that you can look at.
There's a Dory. A Blue Tang, I think it's called.
Very pretty.
We're still on the second floor.
And now we're gonna go down to Shark Canyon.
The hallway looks like you're going underwater.
There's a baby one and a big one.
There's it's face.
Do you see it...it kind of looks like a smile.
There's another one.
Almost like you're down in a submarine.
Just a little overview about Shark Canyon: this is a 45 foot long, 18 feet
deep, habitat. And it's about 250,000 gallons.
And there's another big viewing area here.
Benches where you can just sit and watch. It is kind of relaxing just
to watch them swim.
Striped fish, zebra fish.
Three different species of sharks: we have Sandbar Sharks,
Black Tip Sharks, and we have Nurse Sharks.
So on the floor, we have our Goliath Grouper.
He's currently about 70 pounds. And is projected to get anywhere between 300-400 pounds.
There are some Seahorses. Wow.
It's almost like they glow in the dark. Yeah!
I haven't seen her this morning, so I'm not sure exactly where she is.
She's already been fed, so she's probably like, come back sometime later, right.
The Octopus is really good at hiding. And we haven't seen her yet.
Jellyfish...they're big ones.
How do they sting? With those tentacles.
And another type of jellyfish over here. Smaller than the others.
And that's the last room, and now we exit and go to the Gift Shop.
You can get all kinds of St. Louis Aquarium souvenirs. Here's a headband...St. Louis
Aquarium Union Station. Photo frames.
Toys.
And some stuffed animals over here.
Even some St. Louis Blues merchandise in honor of Lord Stanley.
So, Donna, what did
you think of the St. Louis Aquarium? I liked it, I gave it two thumbs up!
Definitely! I'd say 9 out of 10. Just because nobody ever gets perfection right. No, and
it's not huge, but it's really nice. They've done a great job with it. Yeah, I think so too.
I loved the train ride. Yeah. I love seeing the Sharks. I love Stingrays. It's just
mesmerizing. I could spend at least another hour there just sitting and watching them.
Bye! And come to the Aquarium if you get the chance!