Ty Warner Sea Center

We headed up to Santa Barbara with Marisa and Misti and their kids to visit the little sea center on the pier.  Marisa figured out how to score free entry (she's cool like that) and we hadn't been for a few years, so it was super fun.  The girls all loved the tiger shark, star fish and decorator crabs in the touch tanks.

They send a bucket down into the ocean and pull up the sand on the bottom.  Miriam had a blast finding all sorts of stuff to look at under the microscope.  Rachel loved looking at all the shells under the magnifying light too.

Upstairs there was a large jellyfish exhibit.  They are just plain cool creatures.  Everyone had fun checking out all the exhibits.

Afterwards, we drove down the street to a beautiful park where we had lunch and the kids played.  After we ate, Marisa had brought bread to feed the ducks and the fish.  We walked down to where the pond was.  It was landscaped nicely and had steps leading down to the pond so it wasn't slippery, but I stayed right behind Rachel and made her stay seated while she tossed her bread.  Then I heard SPLASH!!!  I looked over to see Miriam standing waist deep in the pond!  I was really proud of how she kept a good attitude and luckily, she had a change of clothes in the car.  We stopped on the way home for an ice cream at Chick-Fil-A and so the big girls could play on the new play place.  It was a fun, exhausting day.