Totally Texas -- It's a wet, wet world!

Dallas World Aquarium/Children’s Aquarium at Fair Park

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I admit -- I love both the Dallas World Aquarium in downtown, and the Children’s Aquarium at Fair Park. Each has the summertime advantage of offering indoor entertainment with some education thrown in when it’s too hot to play outdoors. And their “niches” are sufficiently different that seeing either doesn’t detract from the fun of experiencing the other.

I visited the Dallas World Aquarium, 1801 N. Griffin, recently to check out some changes. The exhibit of giant river otters on level two of the multi-story building has moved due to work on an expanded habitat for the aquarium’s tamarins (small monkey relatives -- yes, DWA includes a lot more than water creatures). But the otters still seemed to have plenty of room to cavort -- and eye their human visitors.

Also new for the summer -- through Labor Day, September 3, Grupo Pakal will dance to Native American music every weekend -- Friday through Sunday -- in the Mundo Maya exhibit. The dancers and their birds graciously pose for photographs afterward.  
Performance times as well as schedules for animal feedings several times daily are listed at www.dwazoo.com/. 

(For reasons best known to themselves, my grandsons are crazy about the two-toed sloths and imitate them by hanging upside down whenever possible.)

Although the sun was hot on the day of my visit, even the outdoor exhibit of black-footed penguins felt comfortable for both people and birds, thanks to shade and ample flowing water. The DWA states that the penguins are native to South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, not needing frigid Antarctic temperatures to thrive.

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The Children’s Aquarium at Fair Park focuses only on water-living creatures. It generally isn’t as crowded as DWA, and the boys love being able to get close to exhibits such as the rescued sea turtle and the “bubble” wall in the octopus habitat that invite you to reach in and -- almost -- touch.

Actual touch is possible Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 2:30 p.m. when the sharks and stingrays in the shaded outdoor Stingray Bay exhibit gather for feeding. The catwalks and glass-sided tanks allow ample views of the shark feedings. Aquarium employees feed the sharks, but visitors may feed -- and touch -- the stingrays whose barbs have been clipped for safety.

For $2, the aquarium sells small cupfuls of shellfish for stingray feeding. And the fish aren’t shy about coming close for food. (Daily feedings of other animals, including the aquarium’s albino alligator, are open for visitor viewing as well.)

The Children’s Aquarium offers a couple of other benefits. It costs $8 for adults compared to the DWA’s $20.95, with parking always free except during the State Fair. (Enter at gate 6 off Second Avenue in Dallas for adjacent parking.) And the Children’s Aquarium is only yards away from the Fair Park lagoon, where kids can continue the aquatic theme by following the raised pathways. For complete ticket and schedule information, see
www.childrensaquariumfairpark.com/.

Totally Texas -- Stay cool while you feel the rays

Children’s Aquarium at Fair Park

Grand Avenue at Robert B. Cullum Blvd.

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The redesign of the Fair Park Aquarium, renamed the Children’s Aquarium, changed it from a place only notable for its Art Deco exterior to a place where kids (and adults) can get close to -- even interact with -- the resident animals. On our recent visits, a shallow, open-topped tank near the entrance housed horseshoe crabs and hermit crabs. Kids -- with hands properly washed at the adjacent water faucet -- were encouraged to touch the crustaceans, while staff members occasionally lifted them out of the water for closer inspection and explanations of their behavior and ecology.

Even the traditional tanks are designed to enhance children’s appreciation. A tank full of jellyfish lets kids chance the light settings to demonstrate the transparency of these invertebrates my daughter’s twins learned about from the movie “Saving Nemo.” And the oh my gosh octopus tank has an internal extension that let them see just how the suckers on its tentacles worked. (Put your hand in to understand the magic and give the octopus an up-close look at how humans work.)

But the centerpiece was the shark and stingray feeding. Feeding demonstrations for everything from the resident American albino alligators to zebra sharks take place daily at 2:30 p.m. but the boys wanted sharks, which get fed Sunday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons. This isn’t just throwing fish kibble in a tank. The sharks and stingrays are released into huge glass-sided, open-topped pools in a shaded outer area of the aquarium -- Stingray Bay, past the restrooms. Aquarium staff members wade into the pools to hand feed rays separately and -- best of all, visitors may also feed them.

The rays’ barbels have been clipped for the safety of visitors and the aquarium sells paper cups of scallops to would-be ray feeders. Although visitors must lean over the side instead of wading in the pool, the animals are fearless and will take the offered food right out of your hands. I‘m guessing that probably doesn‘t happen when the alligators or snapping turtles are fed.

With the enhanced aquarium come, of course, higher admission prices. Adult tickets generally are $8, kids 3-11 $6, free to children age two and under. The aquarium is open daily from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. except on Thanksgiving and Christmas -- great for those times it’s too hot to play outside. See http://childrensaquariumfairpark.com/ for complete admission prices, feeding schedules and more.

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I don’t usually blog about commercial venues, but another hot weather favorite in our family is Studio Movie Grill’s summer matinee series for kids. One dollar a kid!  (Two dollars per adult.) See www.studiomoviegrill.com/SummerSeries.php/ for showings.

(Next Monday: First Monday Trade Days in Canton)