Houston "Aquarium"

As you can tell by my "" in the title, this post is bound to take a negative turn...

I have always had a somewhat unusual obsession with aquariums, whenever we go to a major city I always look to see if there is one to visit - probably because it's like visiting a giant air conditioned zoo of sorts.

So naturally when we moved to Houston, the first place to check out on my list was this underwater landmark, I remember it was one of the first things I noticed from the highway, it's hard not to notice the lit up ferris wheel against the night sky and the impressive fish fountain out front. Houston is the 4th largest city in the United States so this aquarium HAS to be one of the best...right?

For a list of prices and other information you can check out their website HERE

First of all you immediately had to shell out $7 minimum parking fee (ahhh yes, the perks of being downtown) and the tickets were a steep $11 a pop (no student discounts here). We were "lucky" today though because the stingray reef exhibit (which is normally $3 extra) was included in our entrance fee. We noticed added fees seem to be a trend in this place, wanna see sharks? Ahh yes that will be $5 extra. With an open mind, we squeezed ourselves through the narrow dark hallways trying our best not to get our toes run over by strollers we finally entered into a room with actual fish in it (finally). We then proceeded to walk into 2-3 more rooms one of which contained a single white tiger...okay...tigers are cool and all but don't you think that this entire exhibition space would be better reserved for, I dunno... fish? Not to mention this poor creature was alone and didn't seem to have access to the outside.

The only part of our day we did enjoy was the free stroll down a portion of the Buffalo Bayou Trail which is connected to the outside fair portion of the aquarium. Even though it was slightly muddy from all the rain we've been having it was a beautiful walk and would be ideal for cycling.

The Verdict
I usually try to encourage people to visit the local landmarks but in this case I would advise anyone who doesn't want to blow 30 + dollars on a glorified fast food quality restaurant that happens to have a a couple of fish tanks in it.
My advice? Head on over to the Houston Zoo (which I will be posting on later this week) the ticket prices are a bit higher but they have equal (if not more) underwater exhibitions and it will take you a lot longer than 15 min. to walk through.