The National Aqarium on Baltimore's inner harbor.

Need a summer activity that’ll keep you off the beach long enough for your sunburn from this weekend’s barbecues to fade? This is the perfect time of year to visit the aquarium. Don’t ask me why this strikes me as a summer activity; while most aquaria admittedly have at least one or two open areas somewhere, the vast majority of their exhibits are in pleasantly climate-controlled indoor spaces that’d be just as nice during January.  Never mind that. It doesn’t matter why this is a summer activity to me.  It just is.  And tell the truth — as the weather heats up, doesn’t spending some time indoors surrounded by thousands of gallons of water sound pretty nice?

While admittedly the New York Aquarium is not one of the country’s most impressive aquaria (although the walruses are worth the admission price all by themselves), New Yorkers need not despair; great aquaria are only a road trip away. And for our friends down the mid-Atlantic? The National Aquarium in Baltimore makes Baltimore worth the trip all by itself.  (Although you shouldn’t miss the opportunity for a good crabcake while you’re in town.  My love for sea life is, um, many-faceted.)

The National Aquarium is everything a great aquarium should be.  Got kids?  Everyone loves a good dolphin show, and what better way to cool off on a hot day than getting splashed by a smart-ass cetacean?  (Get there early if you want a seat in the “splash zone” — the shows are very popular and fill up fast.)  The aquarium as a whole has over 10,500 specimens from over 560 different species, ranging from some genuinely enormous pufferfishes to a very handsome octopus and some trippy deep sea fishes.  I’m a particular fan of the open pool on the bottom level full of skates, rays, and sharks, visible both from above and from an underwater view. While you can’t pet them as you can at some aquaria (Monterey, New Orleans), watching rays fly through the water never fails to entertain.

If you go, you should hit the aquarium’s special exhibit Jellies Invasion: Oceans Out Of Balance, which opened Memorial Day weekend.

Sound collision alarms! Sea nettles on the move in Baltimore.

Jellyfish, frankly, are always one of the coolest things to watch at an aquarium — few other sea animals get such spectacular mileage out of judicious lighting.  Jellies Invasion has a whole array of different species on display, from the moon jelly, familiar in waters off the East Coast, to spotted lagoon jellies and even upside-down jellies, which lie on the bottom pulsing in a faintly unnerving fashion.  They also have a tank full of Leidy’s comb jellies, a ctenophore whose rows of waving cilia run rainbows down their sides in the light.  In addition to being beautiful, jellies are important environmental indicators, and the exhibit has an important message to convey too.

Tickets for adults range from $24.95 for simple entry to $29.95 for entry, the dolphin show, and the 4D Immersion theater, and $14.95 to $19.95 for kids.  (Admission to Jellies Invasion is included with entry.)  You can buy timed entry tickets online ahead of time and pick them up at machines outside the aquarium door.  If you’re going on a busy summer day, buying tickets ahead is well worth it, as you may find when you get there that the tickets being sold are for entry several hours later.  If you arrive a little late for your entry time, no big deal — you can enter any time after the specified hour.  Have fun!

Tags: Baltimore, Inner Harbor, National Aquarium

This entry was posted on Monday, July 6th, 2009 at 9:36 am and is filed under Location, Location, Location. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.