I took my wife and two young boys (ages 4 and 2 in...

I took my wife and two young boys (ages 4 and 2 in August 2013) here and had a nice time. The aquarium turned out to be smaller than I expected it to be based on memories of the place a few years ago. Perhaps I have conflated it in my memory with the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which is MUCH larger.

My sons raced though most of the indoor exhibits: i.e. past the kelp, octopus, jellyfish, eel, seahorses, etc, but slowed down for the outdoor and interactive exhibits. They loved the tide pools, and I was very impressed with how helpful and friendly the volunteers were who staffed them. Touching sea stars and sea slugs was a lot of fun for all of us. The boys also loved the two water tables where you use plastic walls to control the flow of water down a slope. They also enjoyed the exhibit where you could make a fountain go by turning a crank, riding a bike, etc.

Then there was the shark feeding. I completely loved it, but for some reason my two boys didn't show a lot of interest in it. I would have put money on them going crazy with excitement for it, but no dice.

The worst part of the aquarium, in my opinion, was the global warming exhibit, which I thought was thinly argued (to the extent it was argued at all), and more propaganda than anything else.