blinder's Journal: Dippin' Dots With The Fishes

on friday the solemn and i decided to play hooky and go to the new england aquarium. i like aquariums, i like fishes and turtles and penguins (they have lots of rescued penguins there) and sharks. in fact, don't know if i ever told any of you, but when i was a kid, while everyone was wishing they were a doctor or a lawyer or a fireman, i was dreaming of being an oceanographer, studying sharks. i read everything i could that our school library had on sharks.

anyway, i digress. we headed out to the aquarium around noon-time, taking the T (which is a nice way to get there in that it has its own stop, but in reality... you could walk there from state street, or haymarket or just about anywhere downtown, yeah its boston! everything is within walking distance).

before we made our way in it was decided that dippin' dots would be a good idea (they are not dragon poison). a couple small orders of chocolate and a few minutes relaxing on the side deck looking out over the harbor, we nearly flash-freezed our innards with the liquid-nitrogen frozen ice cream treats. yum! i forgot how yummy that stuff is. yay for freezing science!

after that it was time to go into the aquarium. instead of just buying tickets, we decided we'd become members. oh yes, membership does indeed have its privileges (buffer? trmj? anytime you guys want to get in free, just let us know. you also have a standing invitation to the science museum to which we are also members - so when you guys want to see science, whether soaking wet science or everything-else science, just let us know).

well, the new england aquarium is really nice. they had a special exhibit of jelly fish, which was unusually beautiful. next up were the penguins (tuxette: we got you a thing). they were being fed. the volunteer feeders are very cool... they don't just try to jam a fish into the bird's mouth, they communicate and socialize with the birds as well. they were rescued from a south african oil spill in 2000 (the birds, not the volunteer feeders), and seem to be quite content and happy here in boston. there's also an "exposed" veternary exam room with an interactive touch-screen computer so you can see who's being treated and for what. there were a few bibbets who needed some help and they were getting it. it was sweet :)

by this time solemn was getting quite tired (we didn't bring the chair, but now we know we can get a loaner right there at the aquarium). so we just went to the top of the spiraling display of all the various large fish and sea turtles they have. solemn got some good pictures with her camera phone (those razr's have a pretty decent camera) - we'll most likely post them in a few days.

so, that was our friday. we spent about 2 or so hours. it was quite a lot of fun. we'll be doing it again, of course. next time i want to see the sharks. i've been to the national aquarium in baltimore a few dozen times (in that it was only 10 minutes from my house), and this one was as good as that one, and in some aspects better.

the rest of friday was spent resting then marching over to harvard square to get haircuts.

so there.
 

Membership has its privileges

[RevMike]

btlzu2 and his bride were in NYC a few weeks ago. I took them to the Bronx Zoo. We have a "family + 1" membership which admits my wife and I, our children, plus one guest. Since my wife was not along, I told bride of btlzu2 to says she was my wife if anyone asked. :) We had lots of fun teasing btlzu2 with that.

we gots to post pics

[SolemnDragon]

yes the volunteer feeders try to coax the birds to eat, and write down how much each bird eats, so this involves stopping at each bird, noting who they are, offering them food and in some cases talking to the birds as well. It's very sweet to watch them interact with the birds, especially the excitable baby birds who set up a ruckus as the feeder comes around. "Hey, look, it's the feeder guy!! Mr. Fishie-man, i'm hungry! I'm hungry!" Waddle-waddle-waddle.

The vet's office was indeed very charming, with patie

Yay! Aquariums and dippin dots!

[TechnoLust]

Last time Pat and Steph and Sydney came down, I took the to the Georgia Aquarium. I saw that they had Dippin' Dots and I bought some chocolate and let Sydney try them. She loved them! Yay little kids! Next year I'm buying a season pass. My favorite was the otters. Those little buggers are FUNNY!

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[Some Woman]

Yay! Otters! The Philadelphia Zoo has a large otter exhibit. It's fun to watch them slide down the rocks on their bellies.

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[TechnoLust]

The ones in ATL like to put their arms behind their heads and swim around by kicking their feet while floating on their backs. I could sit and watch them do that all day. It's too cute.

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[Shadow Wrought]

I don't know if they were river otters or sea otters, but sea otters are actual quite vicious little things. My dive instructor was attacked by one once and had to beat it with his clipboard to get it to let go of him. He had some nasty cuts on his leg from it.

He also told of us an Australian film crew, just off of shooting Great Whites, who attempted to film the otters at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. They were only in the area for about five minutes before they all came out after the otters went after t

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[TechnoLust]

I'd get a river otter when it was a baby and raise it like a puppy. It'd think I'm it's parent and protect me. I'd take it to the lake and let it swim while I wakeboard. I guess it'd stay in the bathtub the rest of the time. :-)

penguins!!!!!

[tuxette]

Did you get me a real live penguin? Did you get me a real live penguin? Did you get me a real live penguin? *jumps up and down*

I can't wait to go here [simonstown.com]! I've already told my boss that I'm going to adopt a bunch of baby penguins while I'm there and expect maternity leave when I get back ;-)

I have a funny penguin story from the very same aquarium. Boyfriend of tuxette and I were there in 2003. We watched the penguin feeding... and as some of the penguins were moulting, the moulting penguins had to have a speci