We visited an aquarium at Cannon Beach called Seaside Aquarium. You can feed otters and see several octopuses, lots of anemones and other fish, and a petting zoo. It’s a small aquarium that has been open for over 70 years. It’s not really at Cannon Beach, but at a nearby town called Seaside. If you’re taking a vacation at Cannon Beach, it’s only about 15 minutes away. Two of my children loved feeling the sea stars and sea cucumbers with their fingers.
The aquarium has one large room surrounded by glass aquariums. It has another room with the otters. In the main room you also have an area with a red octopus swimming around. What I’m saying is that if you expect a large elaborate aquarium, you will be disappointed, but if you expect something small, you will be delighted.
The aquarium around the edges of the room is all salt water, with colorful eels, anemones, and shellfish. Rocks are covered with living creatures.
My son Stephen is my biologist, and he has always loved living creatures. He was glued like a magnet to the petting zoo area of the aquarium. He would watch how creatures responded to his touch.
He also loved having a hermit crab tickle his fingers as it walked across his hand. He spent nearly an hour touching the beautiful and intriguing sea creatures. My daughter enjoyed touching the sea creatures as well.
My other two sons preferred not to touch the sea creatures, but to look at them from a safe distance. They looked at the calm swaying of the tentacles of the sea anemones. They watched the fish swim around in the water.
One tank had a lot of sea stars. The stars are sort of prickly to the touch, and their mouth is underneath. A sea urchin was also in the same aquarium, but it was so prickly that it felt like a pin cushion.
Here is the fabulous octopus, the terrible monster of the deep. It reminds me of when we studied 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, where the octopus attacked a submarine!
Here are some squid eggs. The long white sacks are filled with eggs, and the parent squid dies shortly after laying the eggs.
We had a great time at the aquarium at Cannon Beach. The next day my daughter asked if we could go back because she loved it so much!
Tags: aquarium, field trip, fish, Homeschooling, science, summer
Hi Susan,
Sounds like a great educational lesson! I remember in Japan, I ate sea urchins and octopus. Back to the aquarium, what a wonderful opportunity to learn by touching! That’s unique. Aren’t most just look-only places? Thanks for sharing! I’ll have to tell my niece who homeschools her little girls!
Amy
Yes, a lot of aquariums don’t have petting zoos where you can touch the sea creatures. This was really special to the kids!
Fun trip!!! Don’t you love it when they ask to go back before you have even had a chance to clear the clutter out of the car? It is a sign of a successful day.
It was definitely a successful field trip when the next day the kids are asking to go back!
Oh, we love the Monterrey Bay aquarium! Haven’t been in a few years, but it’s such a great field trip.
Have you heard the story about the disappearing fish at an aquarium? I don’t remember which one it was at, but they kept having a problem with fish going missing. Finally, they installed a camera, thinking to catch a staff member making off with them.
It was the OCTOPUS!!! It climbed out of it’s tank at night, got into another tank, had a snack, then went back to it’s own tank! Wild, right?? They’re really smart. The aquarium staff stopped the octopus by lining the top of his tank with astroturf, so it suckers wouldn’t stick/he didn’t like the texture.
Oh my goodness! What a funny story! I didn’t know an octopus could survive outside of water like that!