fred@mks.com (Fred Kratky) (01/18/90)
I am going to be in Washington DC next week. Does any body know of some good shops in the area? Also, is there a public aquarium in washington?
jvz@nosun.UUCP (John Van Zandt) (01/19/90)
The old national aquarium is in some obscure basement of (I believe) the Dept of Commerce building. Most freely available guides for the Washington area will mention it. It is okay, but not spectacular for a 'national treasure'. What I would recommend is that you travel the 1 hour by car to visit the National Aquarium in Baltimore. It is a multistory building which houses a huge collection which is very informative of both salt and fresh-water fish. Plan on at least 2 hours in the exhibits -- it is well worth the travel time. There is even a rain-forest on the rooftop which is hot, humid and has ponds and streams full of South American fresh-water fish. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- John Van Zandt uucp: ogicse!intelisc!jvz Intel Scientific Computers internet: jvz@isc.intel.com phone: (503) 629-7807 -------------------------------------------------------------------------
link@soup.ssl.berkeley.edu (Richard Link) (01/20/90)
In article <521@intelisc.nosun.UUCP> jvz@intelisc.UUCP (John Van Zandt) writes: > >What I would recommend is that you travel the >1 hour by car to visit the National Aquarium in Baltimore. It is >a multistory building which houses a huge collection which is >very informative of both salt and fresh-water fish. Plan on at least >2 hours in the exhibits -- it is well worth the travel time. There is >even a rain-forest on the rooftop which is hot, humid and has ponds and streams >full of South American fresh-water fish. Yes, and IMHO, better than the Monterey Aquarium. The Monterey one is very impressive (and parts of Star Trek IV were filmed there, allegedly the Sausalito Cetacean Institute - however, facing east from Sausalito one does not see open ocean - but I digress) but fauna and aquascape is that of Monterey Bay. While quite lovely, it is just not as diverse as the Baltimore Aquarium. The multistory circular tank in Baltimore is quite impressive. Richard Link