My birthday in Scarborough

19th January was my 34th birthday, and we went to Scarborough for the weekend, with my mum, stepdad, and our friends Bettie and Jen. It was absolutely lovely and although I'm so, so tired afterwards, it was worth it. I booked us into a flat on Columbus Ravine which had free on street parking which was useful for us. I would stay there again even though it was quite small, Scarborough can be really expensive but this wasn't too bad. We set off on Friday morning, my birthday, and got to the flat around 1pm.

The layout was a bit odd, we had to go through one of the bedrooms to get into the flat, and there wasn't much communal space, but it was perfectly fine for us for the weekend. We left our stuff and went to the Sealife Centre. I went to the one in Scarborough when I was about nine years old or something, and I've been to some others, but I hadn't been to this one in twenty five years! So I thought it would be fun to do. We booked online, which saves you 50% of the ticket price! Unfortunately, we couldn't see the Giant Octopus because they're redoing its exhibit, but we were given vouchers to go back for free once it is open. We also couldn't walk with the penguins because of a current risk of bird flu, but we could still see the penguins.

We set off looking in the main fish tanks, looking at fish and manta rays, then some jellyfish, then a tannoy announcement came on to tell us that they were about to feed the seals, so we headed outside to watch that. There were two seals in the seal hospital, who were rescued near Scarborough, but the main ones were outside in the seal pool. There are five adults who can't be released for one reason or another, and four pups currently who will be released close to the coast. The worker feeding them was really knowledgeable about them and told us a lot about their past, which was really lovely.

After the seals the penguins were being fed so we headed to them. They are so cute, I would like to steal one and keep it in the bath. Again, the worker telling us about them knew a lot of stuff. Once that was done we headed back inside and saw the rest of the fish and stuff. All in all, we spent two hours in there which was a good amount of time.

I think I'll post a bunch of photos from the Sealife Centre now and leave the rest of my birthday for the next post!

Gorgeous big manta rays

Camlouflaged

I love the way the light was hitting this one

 

Fish in a huge tank

There were so many fish in this tank!

This yellow striped one kept swimming backwards and forwards in front of us. Honestly I could've stood here for ages watching these fish

Jellyfish. I think they're so beautiful even though they're so poisonous

Lots of the Sealife animals are rescue animals for one reason or another, but these ones were bred at the centre

Bettie and Jen through the jellyfish tank

These are upside down jellyfish! So cool

The seals!

Doesn't this one really look like a dog swimming?

Out of the water!

Penguins!

My mum against the scale of penguins

This one was called Custard and he came across to see us

Otters! There are just two at the centre

Shark! He was about two feet tall

Giant Turtle! He was so beautiful

Chilling on top of the water

Seahorses

And finally, a clownfish :)