Colin reports on his trip to the aquarium.

[rivka]

Dolphin jump in the air and catch ball, and catch ball, and catch ball.

I see a turtle. Girl feed turtle lettuce. Girl touch turtle's back.

I see a rays. Rays swimming in the water.

A shark scary. Daddy hold me.

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

That dolphin really impressed him.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Apparently it was sort of bouncing the ball on its nose, which accounts for the "and catch ball, and catch ball, and catch ball" part.

[curiousangel.livejournal.com]

It was actually opening its mouth wide enough to catch the ball, and then flicking its head up to toss the ball in the air about 6-8 feet, and then catching it again and repeating the whole process. It was really impressive for a critter with no hands!

[kate_nepveu]

Awesome.

Does he do accompanying hand gestures, too?

[txanne.livejournal.com]

:-D He's *how* old?

[rivka.livejournal.com]

He'll be two in two weeks!

[txanne.livejournal.com]

Your children are going to rule the world.

[nelc.livejournal.com]

I wonder how he knew the shark was scary? It's not much different from the dolphin, really.

[green-knight.livejournal.com]

Have you ever seen a shark swimming at you?

There's something quite primeval about them, the way they move, that frightened the living daylights out of me despite the knowledge that there was a considerable amount of glass between us and that if the glass failed, I'd be in considerable trouble anyway.

[nelc.livejournal.com]

That's what I mean. It's an interesting instinct to have. Does it date from when our distant ancestors crawled out of the water? Or is it more recent?

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Michael put Colin up on the windowledge, and a sand shark with a mouthful of extremely impressive teeth swam by a few inches away, on the other side of the glass. It was actually QUITE different from the dolphin, which was in a swimming pool in the middle of an amphitheater.

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

I saw a shark in one of those tunnel things and it came at me, and I nearly wet my pants (for serious). I was about twenty five at the time! Colin is right. A shark scary!

[huladavid.livejournal.com]

He's a poet.

Oh, I've ment to tell you before, but I couldn't find anywhere to shoehorn this else where, but when I was in Winnipeg for New Years I was at an insufferable concert (Did you know there are no wars in Canada?) with the only relief being a little boy who looked just like Colin.

[puzzlement.livejournal.com]

Dear Colin, I am jealous that you saw a ray.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Our aquarium has an absolutely enormous tank full of huge rays. You can watch from above (this is where Colin saw a diver feeding the giant turtle who shares the tank) and then, later in your tour, via an underwater window. They are breathtaking.

[puzzlement.livejournal.com]

I've seen a similar tank at Townsville, I think. It is indeed breathtaking! I scuba dive, but although both sharks and rays are somewhat social animals, you don't get that density of them in the wild!

(See here (http://hoydenabouttown.com/20110109.9283/endangered-sunday-grey-nurse-shark/) for more on diving with non-deadly sharks, although perhaps Colin would rather not!)

[puzzlement.livejournal.com]

And I'm specifically jealous about the rays because we don't have big ones as far south as Sydney so I haven't seen a big one for ages.

[lizzibabe.livejournal.com]

I absolutely *Love* your aquarium. I think it is the coolest place on earth. You can see into the water from above and from below. That's just too cool for words.