Spring of Missouri 2018 is quickly becoming one for the record books. All spring, Missourians have waited with bated breath to see a peak of sunshine, notice a little greenery start to appear on the trees, have a morning we didn’t have to go out in our parka. It’s been a long time comin’ ya’ll, but I think we finally have Spring upon us.
About a month ago, after the calendar saw the “First Day of Spring” come and go, and yet the Weatherman was calling for another weekend of snow in the forecast, I told the hubs that we had to get out of the house. Our poor souls were likely to wither up and die, after being detained to our house all winter, if we didn’t get out and do something. “We’ve got to do something, do anything!”, I said. I think he caught a glimpse of the impending psychosis that was near if he didn’t get me out the house for a little change of pace (and I think he realized the weariness inside himself as well). So he obliged.
For some time, I’d been wanting to head down to Springfield’s hottest attraction for kids (Well, who am I kidding, it’s for adults too. Even if I didn’t have kids, I’d go in a heart beat). Wonders of Wildlife Aquarium is something that I’ve seen shared on Facebook and various other web spaces for the last couple years but we just hadn’t made it a priority to check out, until the winterpocalypse 2018, that is.
We’re lucky that Springfield is a pretty easy two-and-a-half hour drive for us from the central part of the state. We headed down on a Friday, after work, and checked in to our suite at TownePlace Suites. We’re equally as lucky that the suites ended up being just a short, couple mile drive from the aquarium (my hubs would say it’s not luck but his pure genius thinking to book something close by, but whatever!). Saturday morning, once we had eaten our “free continental breakfast” we loaded the kiddos up and headed out (I use quotes and italics not because I’m being sarcastic, because the breakfast was indeed free and continental, but because I would choose to eat breakfast any other place than here. The breakfast wasn’t completely terrible but it was entirely too crowded and by no means great. There was extremely limited seating and with our 3 kids + 2 adults, it was difficult finding a spot to sit in the mornings. And that wait for one waffle… Oh the wait…… Ugh.)
The aquarium is part of the Bass Pro Shops outdoor-world-mecca in Springfield, Missouri. It’s attached to the headquarters here so you can enter the aquarium through the Bass Pro main entrance. You have the option to pay for admission to just the Wonders of Wildlife Aquarium or just the Wildlife Galleries OR you can purchase tickets to both. We only purchased the aquarium tickets and I’m so glad we did. We could have easily spent all day there, but our kids were D.O.N.E. by the time we had covered most of the aquarium grounds so there’s no way we would have survived a second attraction in the same day.
I know the pictures won’t do it justice but this aquarium was awesome!!!! There was everything from jellyfish, to octopus, to stingrays. You name it, they got it.
When you begin your adventure, you enter into a large, circular room that has floor to ceiling (very, very high ceiling) tanks that envelope you. It’s a little breathtaking at first, the way the expanse of the room feels so grand with all this beautiful sea life floating 360 degrees around you. Dim lighting is featured throughout most of the aquarium, which makes the illumination of the tanks seem even more vibrant and really provides a great way to showcase all the sea life.
There were some features along the way that really impressed me. One large tank had millions, and I’m not kidding there had to be millions, of small, silver fish swimming around and around and around in a circle together. We think there was likely a controlled current flowing, which sparked the fishes’ (is that the right way to say that?) nature to follow the current but it really looked cool!
There was a hallway, the Presidential floor, that touched on President’s that had a love of fishing. Pictures and replicas and posters with historical notes about those President’s, lined the hallway, telling stories of those in office who had a passion for this sport.
And what would an aquarium be without an area to touch the sting rays? They had big stingrays and little stingrays, all in various shapes so I know they had several different species in the tanks. Again, there was dim lighting throughout the room and illuminated tanks so you could see the stingrays so well. My kids were party poopers and did not touch the stingrays and complained about the smell of the room (I’ve apparently got some work to do to make my kids tougher) but this was one of my favorite areas.
Just outside the stingray area, there were more tanks (of course) and there, I found the creepiest little sea creature. This little snake-like guy was buried into the “sea floor” with his head bobbing in and out. I was curious what this thing even was but there wasn’t any signage depicting what the animals in the tanks were, which is probably the only negative critique I would give. So, I’ll have to leave it up to my old pal, Google, to help me find the answer.
The aquarium opens at 10am and we arrived just shortly after that. There’s a little snack stand, with goodies like pretzels, popcorn, and the like inside the aquarium, where you can sit down and squelch those hunger pains. There’s also a restaurant at the entrance if you want to go ahead and have a more sustainable meal but there is not a restaurant within the aquarium itself. We did stop for an afternoon snack at the stand, since we hadn’t eaten lunch, and then went out for an early dinner when we were done (Note: Apparently EVERYBODY in Springfield goes out to dinner on Saturday nights. I would recommend going early to save the likely one hour minimum wait, or make reservations somewhere ahead of time).
I hope all Missourians take advantage of this wonderful attraction that we have available in our own backyard. Take the kids, or don’t take the kids, either way, I think you’ll be delightfully amazed!
