My Top 10 Aquariums in the U.S. and Canada

I knew my marketing guru would be devious again for my birthday because that's just his way. He had planned a great weekend of local travel and touring on the San Diego Trolley; the Coaster train to Oceanside; sailing on the Stars & Stripes, the International America's Cup Class yacht that won two America's Cups and lost one; supper with my mom and her boyfriend at the Oceanside Harbor at Joe's Crab Shack; and finally an afternoon at the Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography.

I've always liked the Birch Aquarium until my marketing guru and I started traveling and visiting Aquariums in other states. We also like to visit Zoos, college campuses, arboretums and botanical gardens, and almost anything with the word "national" in it -- national forest, national park, national monument.

I find it interesting that San Diego is so much defined by its water and wildlife -- world-class beaches, Zoo and Wild Animal Park -- but we don't have a world-class aquarium, although Birch is nice and in a great location overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Nonetheless, here are my Top 10 aquariums:

1. Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey CA
2. Aquarium of the Pacific, Long Beach CA
3. New England Aquarium, Boston MA
4. Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
5. Audubon Aquarium of the Americas, New Orleans LA
6. Newport Aquarium, Newport KY
7. The Florida Aquarium, Tampa FL
8. Texas State Aquarium, Corpus Christi TX
9. Underwater Adventures Aquarium, Mall of America, Minneapolis-St. Paul MN
10. Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas NV

I'm pretty sure that when I finally do get to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago that it will be in my Top 10.

1. Mission Valley Condos, San Diego CA: Woodspring - 7/12/09
2. Fake grass - 7/12/09
3. Services from the Internet - 7/12/09
4. Mission Valley Condos, San Diego CA: Friars Hollow - 7/12/09
5. SST (Speechless Sunday with Text): A good reason for being late - 7/12/09
6. What if this was your job? - 7/11/09
7. Our different four-legged friends in Boston - 7/8/09
8. WWW (Wordless Wednesday with Words): A ponytail???? - 7/8/09
9. Mission Valley Condos, San Diego CA: Mission Bellwood - 7/7/09
10. Growth Leader, Week 12 - 7/5/09

Previous week's posts:

1. Things are looking up here in San Diego real estate - 7/5/09
2. Are these MLS pictures representative of the house? - 7/5/09
3. Here's why I've always been a fan of open houses - 7/5/09
4. Virtual staging is here, but at what cost - 7/2/09
5. When in doubt, disclose, disclose, disclose - 7/1/09
6. WWW (Wordless Wednesday with Words): Torrey Pines Gliderport slide show - 7/1/09
7. July Fourth in City of San Diego and East San Diego County - 7/1/09
8. A day late and a dollar short. So sad for my Client - 6/29/09
9. Growth Leader, Week Eleven - 6/29/09
10. Red light cameras in the City of San Diego - 6/29/09

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