Mystic fishes

[fbhjr]

A few months ago, my wife and I went to the Mystic Aquarium in CT and had a really good time.
Good enough that I bought us memberships for 2009.

I mentioned it to my friend Al as a place that might be good to bring the kids.
So, since Gabriele’s birthday is this weekend, and they were in NYC at her grandmother’s anyhow, we all met there this morning.


I have to say, buying the membership turned out to be a really good idea. Not only did two visits from us pay for it, but it also got me the membership discount on buying other people tickets. That’s really cool. (Between this trip and last I probably saved enough in the gift shop to pay for the memberships again...)

The kids really seemed to like the places you can see underwater.


But, whale feeding time on the surface was pretty popular too.


One thing I found out this time is a lot of the things they teach the whales to do have to do with their health.


They teach them to hold their flippers and tails out of the water to make it easier for the vets to check them out. Given these are the smallest whales and still weight up to a ton, teaching them how to show the vet what they need to see seems very sensible.


While other folks went on the “deep sea adventure ride”, Gabriele wanted to see the sharks.


Now, I think these kids are pretty special. But, I’m willing to say I’m biased. However, when the guy in the scuba gear feeding the fish floats up to Gabriele, waves and gives her a big thumbs up, maybe it’s a sign other people think well of them too.


We did spend a fair bit of time at the shark tank. Certainly long enough for my wife to go around to the other side and shoot us looking in at them.


In the category of things paying attention to Gabriele, we went to see the octopus. The other times we’ve been there it has curled up in the corner and hidden from people.


This time, it came over to the window, plastered itself on it and crawled across it.


My wife’s theory is that Gabriele’s red coat attracted it. Given that it turned red as it did it, I think she may be right.

After that, we all got into the mini-van and set out for lunch. Once Al opened the van door, this guy parked behind him to get his spot. I doubt the guy realized how long it took to get us all in the car, settled, windows, down, seats buckled, etc. He waited for that spot for more than 10 minutes. I’m sure he could have been in the aquarium by then if he had been willing to walk a bit more. But, he got is spot...
We all found it very funny that the sea gulls in the parking lot seemed to have a real thing for black SUVs.


Easier to mark where they’ve been?

Al very much wanted to go to Mystic Pizza.


I’ve never seen the movie, but it is only about 2 miles from the aquarium.
In the words of my wife “You just want to park your butt where Julia Roberts once did, right?”
“Yeah,” Al said. “What’s wrong with that?”
We agreed nothing, so off we went.


The kids seemed happy to play with the toys from the gift shop.


I doubt the pizza place had the gift shop in the front when it inspired the movie.


But, the food was good enough, so who cares?

After lunch my wife and I went over to the shopping village next to the aquarium while the rest headed back south.
I have to say I find it very ironic that the Mystical Elements store is out of business. I guess that means my being out of work lets me “experience ancient wisdom” too...


It was a good day. I had a really good time. My wife was the one who suggested the aquarium a few months ago. It was a good idea then and and even better one now. I’m really glad we went. I think the kids liked it too.