“All men are equal before fish.”
– Herbert Hoover
Tourist attractions are high up on the list of places not to visit on weekends. As such, they are equally high on the list of places to visit on a Wednesday morning! My awesome little sister took a day off work to join me n’ the lady T on this venture, which was fantastic for a million different reasons, but mostly just because we both love to have her around!
We all had a fun (and exhausting) day. . .
Here are a few of the highlights (and about a thousand pictures) for the record:
BUBBLE TUBES
I don’t know if bubble tubes are a staple at aquariums world-wide, in fact I very much doubt it, but here we have them. And they rock. My favorite childhood memories of our aquarium are of these, and I’m so happy that they’ve left them alone through all the renovations made since that time. I love being able to share things from when I was a kid with my little girl. It’s so neat when things come full-circle and are given to the next generation, and I get such a thrill to see her get as excited as I used to over them (Why yes. I am easily amused, why do you ask?) I have a secretly sentimental side that just gushes over stuff like this. . .
But anyway, bubbles rock – be they in the air, in the bath, or in a tube. . .
bubble tubes
Puff playing peek-a-boo in said bubble tubes
Harbor View
A cool thing about our aquarium is that its located right on the water. I have to assume that most aquariums share this distinction with ours, being as they’re filled up with aquatic life forms and all, but that doesn’t make it any less awesome. . .
Puff checks out the harbor view...
. . .and spots a PIRATE SHIP! (not pictured)
Swim like a FISH
Aunt Ki convinced little T to “swim like a fish” in front of this exhibit. The idea was to get her to hold still long enough for me to get a good shot. It was really cute, and the pics turned out great. . .
*ahem*
Unfortunately, I will be unable to post the very BEST images. The pictures of my sister demonstrating to T exactly how the fish dance is done will have to be archived in my own private collection. As wonderful (and hilarious) as they may be, I love her, and don’t think she’d appreciate being embarrassed on the ol’ WWW. . . also, one never knows when one will require blackmail fodder. 
I hope you’ll settle for this one of Little Puff instead.
...looks like she's hula dancing, neh?
Petting Sharks
One might assume that Puff would be a bit creeped out by such scary creatures. I know I am! T hasn’t been taught to fear sharks, but if their blank and soulless eyes didn’t get the message across, you’d think those nasty teeth would. . . apparently she would disagree. Puff reached out to ‘pet’ them every time they passed. *shudder* She was definitely impressed by the size of these vicious creatures.
Here, fishy fishy fishy. . .
Round and Round
If there is one thing in this world that I hate, its revolving doors. Honestly – they fill me with a sense of dread. It isn’t a full-blown phobia or anything, but I really, really dislike the suckers, and will always take another way around if one presents itself. The worst experience I’ve ever had with one of these tricky spinners was on our last aquarium visit. That was in December of 2008, and although nothing bad actually happened, passing through with a giant diaper bag (including lunches, drinks, and winter coats for 3) with a toddler in tow was more than enough to stand out in my mind. This year I was very happy to send Puff through to take her own chances in the evil thing. . . she, of course, loved it . . . prolly would have been happy to go around and around and around all day. . .
T sets off on her maiden revolving door voyage
Dolphin Show
On our last visit to the aquarium, she was too young to care, but this time around we had to take Puff to see the dolphin show. It interfered with her lunch-time, but once she got a box of raisins (three cheers to mom for thinking to pack such sweet morsels of toddler contentment into the ‘just in case’ compartment of the bag she brought – yay ME!) she was good to go. All of the talking and educational bits gave T a major case of the squirmies, but when they started jumping outta the water, and waving with their fins, Puff was all eyes.
Several people have insinuated that I am a terribly mean mother because we didn’t sit in the ‘splash’ zone. I had a couple of reasons for this decision, and I stand by them firmly; first, its JANUARY and letting my daughter walk around in wet clothing would be unacceptable, and carrying our wet clothing around all day didn’t sound like a much better idea to me. Second, one never can tell exactly HOW T will react to such a surprising thing. My guess is that she would have loved it. But if she didn’t. . . *shrug* Next time, perhaps. . .
T didn’t seem to mind not getting wet at all, and she certainly enjoyed the happy dolphin antics immensely. She found it somewhat hysterical that they did all of that crazy stuff for FISH SNACKS!
Puff watches a dolphin catch a ball
She liked watching them underwater, too!
FISHIES!
Oh yeah. . . and there were fish, too. Lots of fish. Pretty fish. . . ugly fish. . .shiny fish. . .fish of many colors. . . even stripey fish!
Super Puff likes the bright and colorful fish
I tend to be more partial to the . . .yeah. That.
There are more stories and images to come from this day (we like to pack ’em full of fun, you know). We’ll be on to those soon, I promise you that. But for now, let us take a brief jaunt back in time to the wee Puffy one’s very first ever trip to the aquarium. I do so enjoy these forays into the past . . .
Puffy’s First:
December 6th, 2008
bubble tubes!
Harbor View
Pretty Fishies
Puff liked to imitate the fishy faces she saw
And just because I’ve been singing it since I started writing this post, allow me to leave you with this:
not my image - obviously
“The newt play the flute
The carp play the harp
The plaice play the bass
And they soundin’ sharp
The bass play the brass
The chub play the tub
The fluke is the duke of soul
(Yeah)
The ray he can play
The lings on the strings
The trout rockin’ out
The blackfish she sings
The smelt and the sprat
They know where it’s at
An’ oh that blowfish blow”
– Under the Sea
(as performed by Sebastian)
Permalink
8 Comments
Huginn, Muninn, and me 