Today, Breehy had to stay home - I didn't want her to get splashed by the Beluga Show at the Vancouver Aquarium. I probably should have left my long skirt and shoes home too - in fact, next time I will maybe wear just a bathing suit or a garbage bag with armholes. Probably the latter, as I will not wear a bathing suit in public. I like bread too much.
So instead, we travelled by bus, then sky train - here's Chris, he was pretty excited - I think. Just getting over a cold, but it was a nice warm end-of-the-summer day, so he was fine.
And here's Lizzie, who was just starting a cold - at school, kids share more than crayons and crackers - wearing one of her mom's classic looks (and I don't mean the dress.)
We skytrained to Vancouver, and met this killer whale at the entrance (or was it the exit?) of the station. You can probably tell by its colour that it's not a real whale, but a fibreglass one, part of a pod that was painted and auctioned off a few years ago. The city of Vancouver has also produced a sloth of Spirit Bears (yup, that's the right word, just do a Yahoo! Search), a flock of
Eagles, and the newest, an army of
Terra Cotta Warriors.
After 2 crowded buses passed the bus stop to Stanley Park, we got on a slightly crowded one for the (thank goodness) short ride. The entrance is beautifully landscaped -
- and we headed down the path to the Aquarium. Ah.
Two Roads Diverged.
And we chose the one to the Aquarium, where there is obviously a
New Bird In Town.
Well, we tried to waddle this way, although it was a bit difficult with our long legs.
We came across a colony of penguins, and spent a little while watching them swim, waddle, shake, stand and stare back at us.
We also came across a flock of Japanese Anime fans, which was almost as interesting as the penguins - certainly more colourful.
Then it was off to see the Beluga show. There were two of them in the pool, and their trainers rewarded them with fishes as they did their little tricks.
Their last trick was to jump up and splash everyone in the first couple of rows. Like us. Chris started bawling - his pants got wet. I got soaked. I told him I was so wet I'd have to take off my skirt and go around in my underpants, and he thought that was sooooo funny. And it would have been.
So we sloshed our way inside again, and found a lot of really cool aquariums filled with really cool thingies.
The fishes below aren't really that dark in colour, but the tank was just packed with them. I suppose they are like this in the wild, as the Aquarium keeps everything in as natural an environment as possible. I imagine the whales appreciate this when they are feeding. (No,these were not in the beluga tank, no whales in this tank at all that I could see.)
The inside of the Aquarium has very muted lights, so the flash would go off with every shot. This resulted in glass blurries and not-as-vibrant colours inside the tank.
The deflated bicycle tube below is actually an octopus. This is not a pretty cuddly-looking creature.
These are Sunflower Starfish.
I'm not sure who is studying who here.
It's really hard to believe there could be a Prince inside one of these. Ribbit.
And if there was a Prince in here, he could stay as far as I'm concerned. These lips are just a tad too much for me. (Why do I feel like popping on a Rolling Stones record, I wonder?)
And we went waaaaay downstairs to the glass walls of the dolphin tank, and were lucky enough to see a couple of them cavorting.
To finish the day, we went to the theatre and watched the 4D movie
From Pole to Pole. Now, you may wonder what 4D is - well, it's got all the glamour of 3D, but has some added thrills - like getting a face full of water when a whale breaches. Needless to say, the kids weren't very impressed with that at all - in fact they both freaked out. All I can say, is I'm thankful their feet were high off the floor when the schools of herring swam by on the screen, because Nikkie and I both felt fish tails flipping our feet. (And, no we were NOT drinking.) And of course, our seats vibrated when the ice pack broke up, and the wind blew in our hair ... and - well, you get the idea.
So all in all - a good day. One of the kids' favourite part, however, wasn't in the Aquarium itself, but in the Playground outside.
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