Australia is known for its incredible marine life (hello, the Great Barrier Reef is here) so on Sunday, four friends and I decided to check out the Sydney Aquarium (also at Darling Harbour - I'm telling you, this place is awesome). We saw all types of beautiful fish, jellyfish, crocodiles, sharks, and sea turtles. For those of you that don't know my history with turtles, here's a quick side-note: Back in the 9th grade, I was on a teen tour and one of our stops was this river ride in New England. We took singles tubes down the river and towards the end, I felt this really sharp pain in my butt. I look down, see a huge turtle, and realize that I was just bitten in the bum by it. That would happen to me. Since then I haven't been a huge fan of turtles. So, I decided that on this trip to the aquarium, I would finally make up with the turtle species.
Mission accomplished:
I went to the aquarium with another goal in mind: to find Nemo. I'm sure you're all familiar with the [amazing] movie Finding Nemo and its star, Nemo the clownfish. In the movie, Nemo gets taken by an Australian scuba diver back to his dentistry office in Sydney and Marlin, Nemo's dad, is determined to go to Sydney and get Nemo back.
The aquarium has this huge tank with underwater tunnels so you can view the marine life from all angles - it's a really neat exhibit. So, after marveling at the adorable penguins, my friends and I went through the tunnels. What did we find? The entire cast of Finding Nemo. Nemo, Marlin, Dory, Gill, Crush, even Bruce ("fish are friends, not food!"). I was so excited! (Lame, I know.)
There was another exhibit where you could touch different things. Now, I'm not the bravest person (I'm actually a teensy bit scared of fish), but I'm becoming a master explorer, remember? So I took a deep breath and stuck my hand into the fish-infested tank. I got to touch coral, sea cucumbers, starfish, and some prickly, slimy thing. (My mom right now is thinking, 'Is this my daughter?!'). It was really cool, except that I forgot to wash my hands after, and only realized this when I was eating a snack later. Mmm slime covered chips.
The aquarium definitely helped me get over some of my fears about marine animals here. Maybe now I'll even go scuba diving and decide that I want to spend all my time surrounded by fish... but let's not get carried away.
I am impressed that you put your hand in the "fish-infested tank" but I'm not quite convinced that you have gotten over your fear of marine animals. Remember, I've seen you trying to snorkel in Hawaii...while lying on a raft! When I see a photo of you snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef, that's when I'll believe it. However, this was a good first step! Love you & Miss you!
ReplyDelete"Jackie...Finding Nemo" ahh so awesome! I'm glad you made up with the sea turtles, especially since crush is my favorite character, duuude. Looks like so much fun! great pictures and nice title.
ReplyDeletep.s. i vividly recall our frequent re-enacting of this line when Finding Nemo came out:
ReplyDeleteCrush: Saw the whole thing, dude. First you were all like "whoa", and we were like "whoa", and you were like "whoa..."
you just gave me a great babysitting idea for my little sister ("hey, ava, lets go to the aquarium...ok, now go find nemo, I'll just be over there)
ReplyDelete