Aquarium of Niagara

The Aquarium of Niagara is located about a block from Niagara Falls State Park in Niagara Falls, New York. Parking was free and plentiful, and we arrived just in time to see the penguin feeding at 3 PM. The Aquarium of Niagara is no Sea World, and the feeding shows are mostly just watching fish get tossed to the animals that are contained in small pens or pools.

The day I visited the Aquarium of Niagara happened to be the day of their annual Seaster Egg Hunt, the only underwater easter egg hunt in western New York. Now I just had to find out what that was all about since I was in the area anyway. I thought the Seaster Egg Hunt was an ingenious idea. They dropped colorful plastic eggs into about twenty of the aquarium displays and had the kids run around all day and count how many eggs they could find inside of each of the different attractions. The Easter Bunny was there along with the three baskets that were being given away as prizes to the winners in each age category. The kids were having a lot of fun with the Seaster Egg Hunt, and even my mother was enjoying looking for the colored eggs.

The Aquarium of Niagara has many interactive displays that are mostly geared towards educating children. Each of the aquariums has a labeled photograph of each of the fish that are contained within that unit along with a little information about each fish and its place in the aquatic world. One of the features that really interested me about the Aquarium of Niagara is that for $75 to $175, you can arrange to have a behind the scenes, interactive animal encounter with a penguin, sea lion and/or seal. And the Aquarium of Niagara is fully handicapped-accessible, with ramps and elevators leading up to each of the displays as well as stairs. There are plenty of picnic tables on the grounds, but they only had vending machines there, no snack bar or restaurant, so you'd have to bring your own lunch.