I finally got around to posting this. Hooray! Be prepared, this is a long read...
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| The entrance |
Last weekend, the timing was finally perfect. The day started off rather swimmingly (pun intended). I met up with my friend HJ around 11:30am and we stopped for some Japanese ramen before we jumped on the #19 bus headed towards Stanley Park. The Aquarium itself is located inside, almost smack-dab in the middle of the giant park. Amidst the small group of excited children, we made our way into the heartland of the park itself before we encountered the small entrance into the actual Aquarium.
At first sight, the entrance, being shrouded in trees, was not very impressive in size. Outside the small two door entrance, was a large orca statue which boasted the native heritage of BC. (MY FAVORITES!! I WANT TO BE A KILLER WHALE.) Upon entering, we headed towards one of the three immediate exhibits. This was the Tropic Zone.
The Tropic Zone was exactly what it sounded like. As we stepped in from the chilly outside Vancouver Winter air (which is basically Spring air for the rest of the country), we were immediately hit by a blast of humid tropic air. I shed my coat.
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| Tropic Zone |
This area houses a large number of weird and amazingly LARGE massive fish found in the Amazonian rivers. There was a massive tank where quite a few of the specimen swam lazily around. There was a catfish that was large enough to ride like a small pony. And most of the fish had eyes the size of my fist. After we stood gaping at the massive fish in the first tank, we continued on, pressed by more children behind us who were clambering to get a view of the giant monsters.
The other tanks contained a myriad of different species of fish that were anything from extremely and obnoxiously colourful to dark, dull and "I-will-eat-your-eyes-in-your-sleep" disturbing. One of them was a small fish that was part of a tank that showcased a giant boa constrictor. I said small in relative size to the monsters we saw but it was about the size of both my hands put together. As I knelt down to stare at it, it stared right back, challenging me with its accusingly fishy eyes. It was not until I pulled out my camera to take its picture did it slowly (and GUILTILY I MIGHT ADD) swam away...backwards. (Tell him that I will eat him if he touches you.)
We continued on.
The great thing about this aquarium is that it was not just about fish but also tackled the discussion of ecosystems and other species as well. That brought us to the next exhibit...of parrots and birds. Yes...that's right. They also housed a few species of tropical birds in the aquarium and they were perched slightly out of reach on a large branch. Giant things they were. And as we made our way out the other side, we could hear the angry (hungry?) squawks behind us. My friend kept commenting on how they fed on the children who visited. (Birds do not belong at an aquarium, m'dear! This angers me.)
As we exited this part of the exhibit, I came across my favourite tank. Weird tiny sand eels!! These little buggers burrowed itself into the sand and stuck its head out. As trouble neared, they slowly retreated into the sand. But if the coast was clear, they slowly extended out again, as if they were grass growing at an insane rate. The two of us spent a great deal of time staring at them and giggling when the tiny fish in the tank approached them. They were small and insignificant, but damn if that was not my favourite exhibit of all time. (You spelled "favorite" wrong.)
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| Seahorse threesome? |
As we continued, we came across a tank of seahorses. My friend seemed to like them a lot and I felt this was the first time I have ever seen a seahorse, swimming and alive, before (They are used as herbs in Oriental Medicine...so I've seen them dried up to be used for soup -- erm, ew?). As we watched, one of them approached another...and proceeded to wrap its tail around it possessively. To which, my perverted brain immediately squealed, "OMG THEY'RE HAVING SEX!". I didn't say it out loud obviously because there were children around us... The funny thing was that after that happened, another seahorse appeared and joined them, tangling its tail around the other two. My friend immediately pointed to them and spoke, rather loudly and clearly despite being an ESL student, "THREESOME."
Here's a picture for proof to show that no, I am not crazy. (This is, I believe, just how they chill. They do the same at the NEAQ)
In any case, we exited the Tropic Zone and found that we were just in time to catch the Dolphin Show. It was small and targeted at children, teaching them about dolphins, the nature of dolphins and spoke a little of the research the Aquarium was conducting on their use of echolocation and sonar. It was a pretty short presentation so after that, we explored the outside a bit where they had an otter tank (of which my friend scoffed and kept repeating that they were just TRYING to be cute --- but they ARE cute), and the beluga tank which housed two beluga whales that the Aquarium has brought up (sadly, the baby beluga that was born last year had passed away so it's still just the two now). (That's because everyone knows baby belugas belong in the deep blue sea. :'() After walking around, we headed back inside to check out the West Coast of BC exhibit which showcased the marine life on the BC Coast.
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| Sushi? |
Not much to say about this one except that my friend kept commenting on how tasty as sushi some of the fish might be. I kept praying that none of the marine biologists there heard her. (mmmm!) I also saw a starfish move. That was a new one.
In the back of the exhibit, there were two things that were interesting. One was the large tank that showcased sharks and a giant turtle. The other, was the jellyfish exhibit. (I love jellyfish exhibits. They make me SO HAPPY)
It was eerie. There were tons of tanks of different types of jellyfish just floating around ghostily in a dark lit room. There's not much to say about this one except that in the back, there was also an interactive exhibit for children but they were having a story time thing so we didn't go in to bother them.
We headed back out and trooped down to the second floor of the aquarium (yeah...it has two floors). The bottom floor is a part of the large fish tank that you can see from upstairs and also housed a bunch of frogs and strange salamanders and eels. One of my favourite was this species of eel which looked like it has a pretty strange and creepy face... though cute all the same. It looks a bit like someone has fashioned him out of a few bottles of playdough. The frog exhibit also had a tadpole-to-toad tank which had a bubble that you could pose inside of. Upon the urging of my friend, I crawled in on my hands and knees (since this was meant for kids half the size of me) and got my head into the bubble to contemplate this amphibious existence.
At this point, we were both exhausted and slowly trooped our way towards the exit but not before we stopped by the giftshop for all things fishy! True to my tradition of buying round fluffy stuffed animals from every visit to the Aquarium, I got my new fluffy-ball-in-crime, Dolphin-Ball! Armed with this new fluffy ball of death, we slowly made our way back through the park to the bus stop.
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| Walking through the park |
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| Dolphin-Ball |
In any case, before I conclude this entry, there was something else that happened that day that I thought was INCREDIBLY appropriate considering this was a challenge set by you and our whole history and all. When we got off the bus downtown to do some shopping, we walked up Granville street (the large clubbing/bar street Downtown Vancouver). Upon nearing an intersection... I heard bagpipes. So, just for you, I whipped out the camera and grabbed a picture of a kilted man, stalker style, just for you Ashley.
All I can say about this is that it is pretty much epic. The whole damn day, up to and including the awesomeness of our kilted friend. While my initial response is, "Is he wearing it traditionally?" I know this is not an appropriate question to be asking, and so I won't even bring it up. I wish there had been more marine mammals, but that's just because I'm obsessed with mammals that live in the water. Like seals.
How appropriate right?
So that was the Aquarium. Here's your new challenge m'dear:
Last week, between the Canucks game and the celebration of the Canadian Mens Hockey gold medal game during the Winter Olympics, I have never felt more Canadian in my life (and you should too, being an honorary Canadian and all...though you really should just move here and get it over with). So here's your challenge because I'm feeling a bit less creative this week.
Do something that's very American. Show me that I have to do as a Canadian when I come visit you. Give me something that's historical and fun! Pictures are a MUST.
I know...that's quite vague but that's all I got right now.
With love,
Jordan
PS CHALLENGE ACCEPTED
