July 5th, after walking Megan to the train station, Ian and I decided we'd join in the festivities — here 4th of July continues past the 4th of July. And we also wanted to get in one of our must-see-before-we-leave attractions: the Camden Adventure Aquarium. After lunch, we took the River Link ferry over to the Camden side of the Delaware waterfront.
An uneventful trip, but we did see lots of Ducks. As in Ride the Ducks.
We arrived at the Aquarium only to discover that the line for tickets was over 1.5 hours long in waiting time. Apparently everyone in town for the extended independence celebrations wanted to bring their kids to touch sharks. Given it was already approximately 2:30 p.m. and they would close at 5 p.m., waiting did not seem like a logical option. However, we didn't want to waste the $12 in the ferry for nothing, so after some discussion, we decided to call family and friends to find someone to go online and buy us tickets we could pick up at the no-wait will call window, and plan B the Battleship New Jersey. Ian's parents, call 2, successfully purchased tickets for us, enabling us to skip the line! Dane and Micki, you are awesome, and we WILL get you the check for it! The aquarium was packed with little kids (perhaps we should have gone back another day, but c'est la vie), but we had fun and got to touch weird sea creatures anyway, so we were happy!
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| Ian touching a shark. |
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| the cool something hanging from the ceiling. |
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| penguins! |
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| a dire warning. |
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| Ian contemplates jellyfish (we got to touch jellyfish, too). |
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| On the ferry coming back to Philly. |
By the time we left Camden on the ferry at 5 p.m., we were so exhausted and Penn's Landing was so crowded, we decided to scrap staying there until 10 p.m. for the fireworks. So we got some Cosi and camped out in the lovely grass in a park across from Independence Square.
It was lovely and romantic, having a picnic in a historical landmark national park!
I shall conclude this post with a few shots of the birthday flowers Ian got for me. He makes me feel so loved!
