Big Daddy Date to The Aquarium and The Bund

One family tradition we have recently enjoyed starting is having "Daddy Dates" with the girls and "Guy Time" with the boys.  The big idea is to spend dedicated time with the kids.  Typically this is dedicated 1:1 time, but this past weekend we had the chance to have a very special "Daddy Date" at two of my favorite spots in Shanghai - The Shanghai Aquarium and the Bund.

At the aquarium the kids not only enjoyed creating fish themed crafts, but also interacting with the many types of fish on display

Asa, Miriam and Crystal (a good friend's daughter) stand in front of the Shark Mouth on their way into view Sharks and Sea Turtles.  As you can see from Crystal's paper they were also on a scavenger
hunt looking for facts about the sea animals.

Asa enjoyed posing with various animal figures found throughout the aquarium and the Emperor Penguin was his favorite.

At the end of the tour / scavenger hunt the kids had a chance to touch small sharks!  It was interesting to see how timid Miriam and I (Joab) were to touch them while Asa spent over a half an hour petty them like there were puppies!

 

 

At night we slept right next to the fish inside the aquarium!  In fact, the kids and I were right between two walls of Moon Jelly Fish that had neon lights shining on them.  Fortunately, the neon lights went off around mid-night and didn't come back on until about 6 am!

The time at the aquarium ended with breakfast where I found the kids had created their own jelly fish with a small coin purse and mini-flashlights!

What a special time at the aquarium with Miriam and Asa!

Since we were already in the Financial District (called Lu Jia Zui), I thought we would wander down to the Huang Pu River as it has a great view of The Bund on the west side. 

While enjoying a special treat at Starbucks on the river, Asa decided to use the muffin wrapper to create a "Muffin Man" out of his chocolate muffin.  I love this guy's creativity!

Two of my favorite buildings on The Bund are the old HSBC Bank Building (on the left) and the Customs House (on the right).  Asa joked that we were "going to London" when we cross the river to see these old buildings, which isn't too far from the truth as these are some of the most famous buildings that represent the old British Concession.

In front of the HSBC Bank Building are two iconic bank lions - one with his mouth shut and the other with his mouth wide open.  The HSBC legend is that these two lions represent two of the original bank chairmans - one that was very talkative and the other very tight lipped.  The kids and I enjoyed having fun with them - not Miriam trying to pull Asa's head out of the lion's mouth!