Aquarium at OCT Bay / Dragon Dance

While Stan was out of the country for a few weeks the boys and I took on some good adventures. One great one was the Dream World aquarium here in Shenzhen.  I had never been there before and didn't have a stroller, but figured what the heck.  I attribute all my adventurous nature to my mom, Beverly Young.  She taught us to take life and live it.

We ended up having a great day.  The aquarium was about 20 minutes from our home in a place called OCT Bay.  OCT Bay is modern, creative, and with the touch of contemporary Chinese design in mind. It's a man-made harbor with Water Show Theatre, Dream Aquarium, Children Amusement Park, International Movie Theater, Shopping Malls, and restaurants. Restaurants, clubs and pubs are built along canals with bridges and alleys.  There is a really cool statue in front - not sure on what it is, but very cool.

Kenney explaining the architecture to Cole

There were decorations around for Chinese New Year making it all the more festive.  The aquarium is located inside of the indoor mall area.  On the way to that side of the mall there was an interesting modern art display.

The aquarium was pretty good for it's size mainly focusing on jellyfish.  The kids had a great time and I only lost Kenney once ; ).  Considering it was during a holiday time the crowd wasn't bad.  The only annoying thing was that people had no issue pushing their camera in front of my boys looking at something to capture a shot. Someone said that often people will come through and quickly take photos of everything and then go home to really "see" the exhibit as they look at the photos on the computer.

After the aquarium we lucked out an got front row position for a Chinese New Year Dragon Dance.  I loved watching them as a kid in California so delighted to see an authentic one right here in China.  The sound of the drums was near deafening, but it was very cool.  The boys did good with the noise and special attention of up close dragon heads directed to them - probably because they stood out in the crowd.  Looking different has it's benefits as the kids got to take pictures with the dancers after.

 

When the dance was over we walked around the bay and saw some neat statues.

As I let the boys wait to see them up close and get pictures, soon we found ourselves being asked to pose in pictures with families there.  What's better than Chinese New Year decoration photos? Chinese New Year decoration photos with random black people!  The boys were good sports.