Fun with Mom at the Aquarium!

My mom & me



Tommy & his mom


I know this doesn't really have anything to do with pop culture, but I just had such a nice time spending Mother's Day with my mom and mom-in-law that I wanted to tell you about it!

My husband and I took both of our moms to the 'Aquarium of the Pacific' for the day. It's a beautiful aquarium located in Long Beach, California. They're actually celebrating their 10th Anniversary, already. So hard to believe because Tommy and I were there shortly after it first opened and it does NOT seem like it was that long ago! Oh, well. Time flies...

Some of the more exciting exhibits were the Jelly Fish, Sea Horses/Dragons, Sharks and Sea Lions! At the Shark exhibit, you could actually reach into shallow water and TOUCH some of the smaller ones! They felt strange, too! Some were velvety soft and others were rough, almost like sand paper. My mom was cutely apprehensive about reaching in... she didn't want to lose a finger!

The Sea Lions were a lot of fun to watch! You could either watch them swimming under-water through big windows below, or you could go up above and see them whenever they surfaced and/or jumped out of the water. We got to see them being fed, too. They do all kinds of tricks for their food, including waving at the audience, kissing and barking. We were told that the way to tell the difference between a Seal and a Sea Lion is that Sea Lions have visible ear flaps. Seals do have ears, but they're basically just holes in the sides of their heads, without the flaps. Good to know.

This Seal is an exception

because it DOES have ear flaps.

The Jelly Fish were just literally awesome! I think that I could sit and watch them for hours. The way that their delicate forms undulate through the water is completely mesmerizing! Kinda like watching a Lava Lamp, but way more interesting and impressive. I think I heard somewhere that they don't even have brains! So, so bizarre! At one point, while watching these alien-like creatures, I couldn't help but wonder that if something this strange and beautiful exists here on Earth, what must be "out there" on other planets?

Such beautiful creatures...

Another ocean animal that fascinates me is the Sea Horse. I find their little horse-like heads and curly tails so cute! And I like the way they propel through the water with that little flipper/fan sort of thing on their backs. But even better than the way they look, is the fact that they mate for life with the same partner! It's really neat to see two of them swimming around with their tails intertwined, like their equivalent to our holding hands.

This little guy values monogomy.

I wish that more of us humans did, as well.

I'm fairly sure that the Sea Dragon is a close relative to the Sea Horse. You can tell just looking at them, but the Sea Dragon is typically bigger and certainly appears stranger! They have all sorts of little leafy branch-like things covering them and it looks like they have wings on their backs! I think that these were what fascinated my mom the most.

They look like swimming plants...
But they're NOT!

There was lots of cool stuff to see at the 'Aquarium of the Pacific', but I wanted to share with you the things that I found to be most interesting and noteworthy. I hope that you enjoyed my take.

The whole outing was fun, and a great time was had by all on this Mother's Day, 2009!