funk in deep freeze

Boring recount of an awesome evening.

28 Jul 2009 4 Comments

by meganfinley in animals, happy spurts, sharks Tags: aaron, awesome sea creatures that aren't sharks, videos

Do you ever have those unusually awesome days and think, “today should’ve been my birthday.” I have those every now and then. Yesterday was one of them…

Aaron and I went to the Aquarium of the Pacific on Monday for a late night screening of a Shark Week program about the Greenland Shark. It was such a good time and something we rarely do, public gatherings and the like. At one point some kid nearby did something annoying and i jokingly complained and Aaron said, ‘hey, you’re the one that wanted to go out in public.” So since it was such a rare occasion, I thought I’d take a video to try and capture the moment in time…

After the movie, I noticed that the aquarium would be open for another hour, so I suggested that we eat the $11 per person and go say high to the tiger shark. Right now the aquarium has a 10 month old baby tiger shark! It’s adorable and beautiful and of course we love the opportunity to get near and possible learn more about the creature that took a bite out of Aaron. At an hour to closing I guess no one really buys tickets so all the booths were closed and when we finally got to ask someone about buying tickets they just let us in without charging. Magic!

We roamed the aquarium sans hundreds of screaming children bumping into us and blocking our views to tap on the glass and point out the obvious. It was a whole different and wonderful experience. We made our way through the darkened hallways doing everything we’ve wanted to do and looking at all the things we’ve wanted to see. On our way to the shark enclosure we passed the huge darkened window of the sea lion enclosure. Last time we were there, it was closed for maintenance so I thought there was nothing in there again. But as we walked buy out of the darkness a huge shape glided towards us, then spread it’s flippers apart and glided by, belly first and then back into darknesss. That sea lion was scarier than a shark at that moment and it stopped us in our tracks. Then out of nowhere it came into view again, thrilling and calming us at the same time. We stood there for another few minutes as it glided in and out of view until the pull of the tiger shark took over.

My camera battery died so forgive my crapy cell phone photos.

We stood there for about 45 minutes just watching her swim. It felt good to be near this special animal. It was great to have an opportunity to see and study the shark that impacted our lives so greatly. This particular little girl is beautiful. Because it’s young her signature stripes that give it the “tiger” name are dark and bold and beautiful!!! Her movements are graceful and watching her turn and swim and rise up so that her fin drags across the surface of the water was so awesome it brought tears to my eyes. But at the same time, it awful because this beautiful girl is in captivity and it makes us sad. 

The aquarium was about to close so we said goodbye to the shark, I helped right an upsidedown horseshoe crab and then we walked back into the aquarium and past the sea lion enclosure. only the sea lion was no where to be found. Instead we saw this guy…  

This seal came down and perched itself right against the glass and went nose to nose with Aaron for a moment…

Then the two of them started playing together. Aaron would put is hand out and the seal would swiftly move as if to poke at it with it’s nose (if the glass wasn’t there, of course). Then Aaron would move his hand back and the seal would move it’s nose accordingly. It was adorable. And such a cool moment to connect with a totally different species! And there was no one else around, just me and Aaron and the seal who was as into us as we were into it! Fun times.

Then the aquarium closed for real and we ended up wandering around the pier in Long Beach. If you live in LA and haven’t done this yet, you should. It’s really pretty cool. (And an awesome place to bring a date, fyi.)

So that’s my boring recap of an awesome day. If you read this, I’m sorry. It was bad writing and it didn’t really go anywhere. I just don’t write in a diary anymore.