Fish like you better believe

L’Aquarium Ripley’s est un endroit tout simplement magique.

The first time I took the kids to Ripley’s (believe it or not) aquarium in Myrtle Beach, S.C., was before Youngest was born. I have pictures of Eldest pushing Middle Child in a stroller in the lagoon under the sharks and I swear to you they are adorable even though I’m not allowed to share them. Teens are no fun.

One of the beautiful advantages of homeschooling is that you can take your kids places. And man, did I ever. They were already used to long road trips and plane rides before they were out of diapers. As soon as they could walk they were in charge of carrying their toys in their own backpacks. And no, I never put a leash on them, not even in big-ass airports like Heathrow. I taught them to keep up, to orient themselves and to ask trusted adults for help if needed (look for someone with a name tag). Today they handle any kind of travel like bosses.

I’m fortunate that they were always happy to go to museums and aquariums, too. Unsurprisingly they’ve always favoured the kind of place where they could run around and touch things. Back in those toddler years, in the late aughts and early tens, those places were rarer than they are today. In Ottawa we had the Agriculture Museum(where you can pet baby cows), the Children’s Museum (at what is today the Canadian Museum of History) and the Science and Tech Museum.

They were great, but Ripley’s was a step or three above. Walking in that lagoon under the shark tank is a memory they carried with them for years. So when we heard there would be a Ripley’s in Toronto (opened in 2013), well. The kids are older now but they still love the place. And Toronto is much easier to get to on a whim than Myrtle Beach.

Technically a private aquarium isn’t urbanism in the purest sense. But this place is full of human-centred design, including isolation booths for visitors who may feel overstimulated, which I’m sure happens a lot when it’s crowded. Which is usually. It has a few pairs of noise-cancelling headphones that guests may borrow as they need. Now that’s thinking.

On the website, they say Ripley’s strives to curate a sense of wonder, inspired by a cartoonist, adventurer and entertainer who was larger than life.

On my most recent visit I discovered that trying to photograph fish was a lot more challenging than I thought. But it made the visit a lot more fun than usual. I hope you enjoy some of those shots. Just don’t ask me what they are. A few I can ID but for the rest, you’ll have to ask the amateur marine biologist I seem to have spawned.

J’ai grandi à Québec et on allait souvent à l’aquarium, surtout en sortie de classe. Je me souviens de l’ours polaire dans sa piscine qui avait l’air bien trop petite pour une telle créature. C’était dans les années 1970, et ne se préoccupait pas trop de ces détails à l’époque.

Je n’ai pas mis les pieds à l’aquarium de Québec depuis des décennies mais à en juger par le site Web, les choses sont bien mieux qu’avant.

Ripley’s a toujours été un précurseur de l’aventure vivante qu’on découvre en touchant et taponnant des trucs. J’ai visité l’emplacement de Myrtle Beach en Caroline du Sud il y près de 15 ans, et les enfants — très jeunes à l’époque — en ont toujours gardé un souvenir heureux.

Ripley’s est à Toronto aussi maintenant, ce qui nous donne l’opportunité d’y aller plus souvent. Les enfants — tous ados — continuent d’adorer l’expérience. Parce que tout est fait avec les visiteurs en tête.

Notre activité favorite est de jouer avec les raies dans leur piscine. Elles sont enjouées et un peu guidoune sur les bords, surtout quand on est calme et qu’on n’essaie pas trop fort de les toucher.

L’endroit est toujours plein de visiteurs et ça se comprend. C’est conçu pour maximiser l’expérience des enfants de tous âges et les encourager à en apprendre davantage sur la biologie marine.

Moi, j’ai surtout appris que prendre des photos de poissons, c’est plus difficile que ça en a l’air.