Tuesday proved to be the perfect day to spend doing only one thing: Driving to the Mall of America and spending a couple hours looking at sea life in Underwater Adventures. Now, being that the mall is in Minnesota which is pretty much the furthest place in North America from any ocean you might think that you would never see sharks or jellyfish of any kind. Not so. In fact, Underwater Adventures was ranked as the best shark experience in the world. Amazing.
I have never seen a shark. I have never wanted to. When we entered the attraction and headed towards the long glass tube of a hallway I was apprehensive to say the least. Sure, it is meant to be safe but it would only take one crack in that glass for the sharks to be floating right next to my head with those angry rows of teeth. Maybe it would take more than a crack, but that is how it felt when we arrived.
Quickly I changed my mind. The hollow glass hallway is slightly on the skimpy side, for a nearly 20 dollar ticket but as soon as you walk in there are half a dozen sharks literally two feet from your delicious head. The very large tank of water holds many many kinds of ocean life, but we all know the reason we are there is to see the sharks. It’s set up so that instead of standing next to or above a tank, you are actually walking through one. I was secretly (and now not-so-secretly) hoping to see a shark tear apart one of the lesser sized fish in the tank. Sure, it was amazing to see them so close, but would it have added to the experience to see them do what they do best?
Well, I don’t have much more to say about the place, but I do have pictures to share. Bad, not so spectacular pictures because a flash against an aquarium wall makes for sub par photojournalism.
This is an alligator…or a crocodile. i have no idea what the difference is.
part of a jellyfish
Some weird little creature we dubbed as a Dr. Seuss creation.
I really should have taken note of the names of these things.
THE SHARKS!
These pictures really don’t show how close these guys were.
This is where the octopus should have been
So tg found a wooden one instead and beat it up.
The Pilver 
Wait…there was supposed to be a REAL octopus in that tank?!?! Thank goodness it wasn’t there…that would have scared the crap out of me!
“In fact, Underwater Adventures was ranked as the best shark experience in the world.”
This seems like pretty faint praise. Since I imagine most shark experiences involve having sharp teeth penetrate your intestines, Underwater Adventures has a pretty low bar to hurdle.
“Some weird little creature we dubbed as a Dr. Seuss creation.”
Umm…”we?” That was me! If you are going to steal my ideas for your blog, I want a co-authorship credit! Or at least some cake. Yes, cake would do for payment nicely…
I lo-o-o-o-o-o-ve sharks . . . on the bbq pit! I can’t wait for summer.
Quick thinking. The wooden octopus is the most dangerous kind, but you handled it brilliantly.
tg- yes, you named it, forgive me
Greg- I have never had shark…
BrentD- Thank you for being the one person who found me on humorblogs!
You’re really funny (I’ve always found you funny, but now I mean laughing-WITH-you funny). But you shouldn’t say your head is delicious; even if it is, it comes across as arrogant.
It’s been years, but my kids always liked Underwater World. They also liked a very similar attraction (only much larger) at Sea World in San Diego. Sounds like you found a delicious way to spend your day.
I was thinking the exact same thing as you, when I visited there in November. I want to see a shark rip something apart. I normally don’t have such a strong blood lust, but the situation clearly needed something. Sadly, no fish lost their lives that day.
i have always wondered if we are helping these creatures by having them on display away from there natural habitat or hendring there lifestyles . i guess we will never know till we decice to capture some humans and put them on display . ( yes debbie downer just showed up )
critter- you could volunteer 🙂
I wanted a pet shark as a kid.
“The best shark experience in the world”?? Wow…gotta make it up to Minnesota. How do they find out these things?
As Greg said…Sharks do taste mighty fine off the BBQ grill. I hear it’s difficult to grill perfectly though. I wouldn’t know…I just devour the things. Payback’s a bitch.
(FYI for random PETA people that might come around here: I am aware that humans attack sharks far more than the other way around. I’m just joking. Take it easy.)
Haha, You’re funny. I still think that sharks are scary:)
I love sharks! I went to the Atlanta aquarium a couple of weeks ago and I pet a hammerhead. And I dropped my phone in the tank. Two momentous occasions; one for me and one for the fish in the tank.