So, in sticking with our new family birthday plan of avoiding birthday parties, we decided to choose somewhere fun to go to as a family for Hannah's 2nd birthday. Her birthday isn't until September 4th, but Friday worked out best for us to head as a family to Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies. This aquarium is voted Top 3 on nearly every site you can find and being as we are only 90 minutes from Gatlinburg, we decided to give it a try.
Here are a few snaps from our outting:
Abigail has started asking me to take her picture when she thinks it's a good time. :)
We went through an entire exhibit about "schooling" animals. These fish like to eat dead skin off human hands.
Sidge and Abigail both gave it a try, but Sidge really stuck with it and let them nibble away.
A picture of all the kiddos, looking at the camera. A small miracle.
So overall our review on the aquarium was that it was very nice and very fun but it was a little overpriced for the outing. I don't think it is a place we will go to yearly, but every few years it might be a nice thing to add to our homeschool agenda.
We followed up the Aquarium in typical-Kitsteiner style by finding a restaurant that is ranked high on Trip Advisor and isn't your "normal" place to eat. We like to find non-chain restaurants that offer unique experiences. We also love when a place reminds us of the traveling we have done.
We found an awesome British Pub a few minutes from the Aquarium that was very fun! It was called The Fox and Parrot Tavern. It is a family-friendly restaurant that had really good food! I would definitely recommend it to anyone, but especially those of you who have spent time frequenting pubs in England.
Hard to believe my baby is turning 2 in just a few shorts days. What a piece of work she is. I'll be writing more about her very soon.
3 comments:
You may have already known this but Ripley's Aquarium offers a discount for homeschool families. You just need to take either your attendance record or proof of homeschooling from your umbrella school and your family will get in for $7 each. They also offer homeschool classes once a month.
I didn't know this. Can you get me more info???
Here is an old brochure from last year just to give you an idea of what kinds of classes they offer.
https://www.ripleyaquariums.com/gatlinburg/files/2014/12/Home-School-Programs-2014-15.pdf
The bottom right of the first page gives the info on what to bring to get the homeschool discount. You can get it at anytime, not just when you are going to a class. Here is the link to their homeschool programs for his year
https://www.ripleyaquariums.com/gatlinburg/education/home-school-programs/
Post a Comment