Thursday was the only full day I really didn’t have much to do. Before a contest Michal and Charna just sit around in their room (no energy) so it was up to me to entertain myself. I learned to ride the train where I needed to go and just went there. The Dallas Aquarium is truly a wonderful place. It’s really beautiful and has the best penguin exhibit I can imagine. You’re so close you can almost touch them. When the trainers are around they know they’re going to be fed so they will look at you with their mouth open, just in case you’re about to throw a fish. It’s also really fun to watch them swim. How an animal can be so cute when it’s swimming is just amazing to me.
The aquarium is kind of a big maze around a large very natural indoor setting. This is fun for sequential access, but it makes random access to the aquarium’s exhibits a bit of a challenge, but not impossible. Also, there are two full service restaurants and a great snack bar. Unfortunately they close around non-traditional meal times so I wasn’t able to eat there. I love eating at places like that, even when the food is mediocre, and it looked to be actually pretty decent there from what I could tell.