Friday, September 12 — This morning, Eric ran all the engines and water makers. He also changed the filters in the black water and grey water vent loops. Those filters are immensely helpful in controlling odors.
Before leaving for San Diego, we’d eaten all the fresh food aboard, so we had nothing for breakfast. We went to eat at an iconic Baltimorean southern restaurant called Simply Marie’s Breakfast Only, which was located in a tiny storefront near the Canton ferry stop. The tag line was no frills delicious homestyle breakfast, and our experience exactly match the tagline.
We had to eat quickly since we were trying to catch the next ferry to Locust Point. At Locust Point, we disembarked and caught another ferry over to downtown, which was also free.
Our destination was the National Aquarium, located next door to the submarine and light ship museums. The ferry stop was in Fell’s Point, almost a mile walk from the aquarium, but it was a gorgeous day with ideal temperatures, so it was a lovely walk. Here were some photos from the walk.
Looking at downtown from the bridge above. The Phoenix Shot Tower is in the background to the right
The brick building was a sewage pumping station built in 1912. In the early 80s, it was turned into The Baltimore Public Works Museum, which was about the city infrastructure. Like the Shot Tower, the information about when it was open was conflicting. Most sources said it was currently non-operational, though some said it was open one Saturday a month.
We found the lighthouse that was part of the Baltimore Historic Museum group. It had been hidden from view from the Taney by some of the buildings on the wharf. We’re glad we didn’t try to look for it the day we’d visited the ships; since it was farther away from the Taney than we would have expected, we probably wouldn’t have found it.
From the lighthouse on, the scenery was the same as the photos we’d posted from the day we’d gone to the Historic Ships. The aquarium was kind of expensive at $50 for adults and $40 for youth between 5 – 20. We’d been on the fence about going until one of our friends told us it was the best aquarium she’d ever been to. The entrance was beautiful with a freshwater waterfall in the lobby.
The layout of this aquarium was different than any other aquarium we’ve been to. The building was 5 stories tall. We went up to the second floor, where the entrance to the Great Barrier Reef exhibit was. Outside the exhibit entrance was a megaladon jaw fossil. It was believed that the megaladons evolved 20 million years ago, were 50 – 60 feet long (2 – 3 times the size of a great white shark) and disappeared two or three million years ago.
And there was a great view of the lighthouse ship from the window behind the fossil.
When we walked into the exhibit, we were slightly above the surface level of the main pool, which had lots of different creatures swimming in and out of the hole in the middle of the coral reef.
There was also a wall tank that had creatures racing by. We suspected they did a loop through the coral reef into the wall tank and back out the coral reef into this main tank. We could see there were people on the other side of the wall tank.
We ascended up a one-way path lined with small tanks on one side. From the other side, we could see the main pool below. Looking down from one of the upper floors.
The first few sets of tanks were devoted to creatures of the brackish Chesapeake Bay. It was surprisingly crowded and some of the tanks were hard to see due to so many people blocking the view.
There were also some tanks devoted to the creatures that inhabited the freshwater areas of Maryland.
