“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)
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Huginn, Muninn, and me 
wecki77 said,
January 28, 2010 at 2:30 pm
We love the aquarium too! I haven’t taken Tori to the dolphins because of all the talking (afraid of the squirms). The bubbles, my fav too (though the poison frogs are a VERY close second). I had Tori listent o them. They gurgle when the bubbles come up. So much fun. I even had my 6th graders listen during our annual field trip…they loved them too..made all their friends in the other groups listen.
So we must plan a good Wednesday when I decide to take one off. I know, you aren’t a planner, but I am 🙂
Oh, and beautiful pics as always.
Ki said,
January 28, 2010 at 3:24 pm
*rocks out to Under the Sea* \m/(>.<)\m/
The pics are amazing. I'm glad that she had fun. She did pretty well on this trip – only ran away from me once!
Her hair is so much obviously longer now compared to her first aquarium trip. Gosh… It's all over the place. =p
ChristinesLillSprouts said,
January 28, 2010 at 3:27 pm
Looks like fun! We were there once, though I don’t remember the bubble tubes! I’ll bet T is loving her fun filled Wednesdays!
Amber said,
January 28, 2010 at 4:01 pm
How fun.
We also love going to the aquarium.
Kelli said,
January 28, 2010 at 5:16 pm
I love the aquarium and so do the kiddos!! Looks like Puff liked it too!! Nothing like spending time with your sister!!!
julie said,
January 28, 2010 at 8:49 pm
great pictures! thanks for sharing! i feel like i was there! she is too cute! and i totally agree with you on the splash zone!
Kendall said,
January 28, 2010 at 10:18 pm
Aww that looks like so much fun!! I remember those pictures from last year too. I agree with you on the splash zone…only because it’s january!! When Kayda was 2 and Colby was just 1, we sat in the splash zone at SeaWorld. We had one guy try to tell us to move by telling us how COLD, FREEZING COLD, the water was. We stayed and got a bit wet. The girls gasped, as did us adults, but they loved it! I was a bit nervous about it, but only because I didn’t wanna walk around all wet. Okay…I was a bit nervous about how the little ones would handle it. Not sure how they’d do now! Loved the pictures and I’m glad your sis got to go with ya!
Tori said,
January 29, 2010 at 7:39 pm
LOL I know who your talking about when you said some think your a bad mother for not letting T get splashed at the dolphin show…… ME & KAIT!!!! haha it’s ok. I’m sure she had a great time with out getting wet – but next year its a definite!