[Background: Free 2007 visit to the Long Beach Aquarium produced a short-and-sweet letter. Have fun following the links to learn more about sharks.]
We've had some warm weather this week (scheduled to become cool and possibly rain tho). A couple days ago I took Tricia to the Aquarium of the Pacific ( http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/ ) in Long Beach (the gas bill came with a coupon for 2 free admissions - guess the week after Thanksgiving is slow). It was a good break from arguing with R about bringing a stranger (that she didn't even know herself) to stay at our apt. Here's a picture of me wrassling a shark:
Photo by Tricia with her trusty Sidekick
Actually, as you can tell, it's a sculpture right next to Shark Lagoon. The sleeves of my hoodie are rolled up cuz we were just petting some sharks and rays in the touch pools. There's a tank with larger sharks, rays, a sawfish and a moderately-sized bull shark (the only one in SoCal) which kept swimming up real close past the glass and eyeballing us as we were eyeballing it (no, we couldn't touch it <g>). The interesting thing about the bull shark is it looks superficially similar to the great white but can happily swim in fresh as well as salt water. It's been blamed for a series of fatal attacks in Matawan Creek, NJ in 1916 which inspired the book and movie Jaws
:The Case of the New Jersey Man-Eater ( http://elasmo-research.org/education/topics/saf_nj_maneater.htm) and:
Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_Shore_shark_attacks_of_1916 )
As you can tell, I like sharks <g>. The rest of the aquarium is great too, it has lorikeets (nectar-eating parrots), seals, sea otters, diving birds, jellyfish, sea dragons (bizarre frilled seahorses), and huge tanks filled with zillions of fish. You can stand right up next to the glass and feel surrounded by fish and coral reefs.. makes me want, as usual, to learn to scuba dive.. okay, where's the nearest class? :)
The free coupon is gone, but found out there's a half-price program with the Long Beach libraries.. check out books, save the receipt, and present it within 2 weeks to receive the discount. Program runs til May 23 2008. So if you're in the neighborhood and wanna go, LMK so I can go to the library :)
Tricia says the aquarium in Minnesota is bigger, and I think the "new" National Aquarium in Baltimore is a bit bigger too, plus they have a huge torus-shaped tank with tuna swimming in it. The old National Aquarium in DC kinda sucked, tho.. but it's in the process of renovation and is still very cheap to visit.
Kendra