Day 3 was here, and I wanted to take Meghan to the aquarium to see some sharks, and then dip our toes into the Atlantic. We drove about 30 mins south to Fort Fisher to the North Carolina Aquarium.
As we approached the door, Meghan spotted a dinosaur in need of a rider. She hopped on and proclaimed, “Onward my trustee steed!”
With the dinosaurs behind us for now, we entered the aquarium, where Meghan was feeling adventurous and stuck her head into the mouth of an alligator. Luckily for her, it was stuffed. 
As we continued around the aquarium, we encountered this tank of fish who thought we were there to feed them. Sorry fish, no food for you.
As we continued on, we encountered this guy. I’m not sure what type of fish it was, but it was definitely a unique one.
All the fish!
Bring on the sharks! This isn’t quite a “hammerhead”, it’s actually called a “bonet head”, but they are very close relatives as you can tell. During this time we watched as 2 divers entered this extremely large tank and put on a dive show, complete with underwater Q&A. Meghan and I got to high-five one of them through the glass.
We continued on to the jellyfish…who are living despite not having a brain or heart. Definitely some alien-type stuff here.
Megalodon! Open wide!
We traveled to the back-side of the large tank that the diver show was at, and encountered this guy. She just watched us as we took pictures of the sharks. I think he just wanted his 15 minutes of fame too.
More sharks!
After a trip to the gift shop, where we each bought our nieces and nephews some gifts, we headed outside to see the dinosaur exhibit. Nothing tops the T-Rex!
After our adventures with dinosaurs, we drove over to the beach, where we each ate our fantastic Luncheable lunches (complete with Kool-Aid!). We hit the beach and walked the beach for a good 30-45 minutes, dipping our toes in as we went. We didn’t take many pictures here, we tried to live in the moment. Along the way, we each found some really cool shells that we decided to pickup and keep.
When we got back into town, we rested for a bit, and then headed out to dinner. We had our first conversation 2 years ago today, so technically this was the first time we met, and Meghan wanted to celebrate. We headed to the boardwalk and ate dinner at Elijah’s, while enjoying a glass of wine while taking in Cape Fear. For those Dawson’s Creek fans out there, this place was used in the series finale as Pacey’s restaurant. 
With dinner over, we walked around for a bit before deciding on taking the horse tour through the historic downtown area. As it turned out, nobody else joined the tour with us, so it was just Meghan, myself, Buddy (the driver) and Jeff (the horse). It was a great tour and a fantastic end to the evening.