Fish Are Friends, Not Food

"I am a nice shark, not a mindless eating machine. If I am to change this image, I must first change myself. Fish are friends, not food." --Bruce, Finding Nemo

Today, after pulling myself out of my stupor from yesterday's wisdom tooth ordeal, I went to Salt Lake to pickup the boys. I had my next blog post in mind, of course. It's been a while since I sent any pictures of Noah and Blake to my parents so I had to get some good ones to post. I had received some tickets to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy, just south of Salt Lake City proper. I picked up the boys and we first made our way to REI for a brief look at jackets and "multi-purpose" bags (not purses ;). Then it was off to the aquarium. I was a little excited. If there is one thing I miss about working at Sea World, it would be the opportunity to see the blindingly bright fish swim around in their own pee. No, really. I LOVED working at Sea World, not because I could stand the smell of feeder fish in the morning, or the afternoon for that matter, or because I loved to hear the seagulls say "Mine, mine, mine" all the time. I loved it because there is nothing like seeing the different types of life exist together, all in the liquid we call water. Have you ever wondered how we, as humans, can survive with oxygen, food and the proper shelter? On the same note, how can there be so many different types of life under the water, deriving their life from the oxygen that is in the very water that, if we were forced under, would kill us? Hmm...just a thought I've always had.

So back to the adventure.

Noah, Blake and I made our way into the building. The boys had been there before, so they lead the way. We started at the beginning. Noah went straight for my least favorite sea creature, the octopus. It was red and about as long as Noah is tall, in a tank that I thought was much too small. Bummer.

Next stop, the Jelly Fish. Who knew those things swam upside down? Well, maybe I did, but today I was surprised to see them traveling in that way. Seahorses...I forgot how cute those things are. There were all sorts of fish and sea life. I was surprised. There was a petting tank with rays in it. Both the boys made a feable attempt at touching a ray, I think more out of being safe from the "stinger" than anything...it didn't seem to make a difference when I mentioned that they didn't have stingers anymore. Oh well. We touched sea stars, saw baby crabs and made our way over to the various tanks that contained fish from Finding Nemo. We saw Dory, Gill, Mr. Ray, and of course Marlin and Nemo. There were sharks and eels and other large fish that look like they could eat me in one gulp. After seeing everything, which only took about 45 minutes, Noah had to show me a hat he was a fan of. And Blake showed off his new scarf. We had a great time, I can't complain. I had a great time, short as it was.