Raw, Real, and MaRRRine

Okay, so the title's a little hokey. But as I post some unedited pictures of today's New England Aquarium trip, I lack the wit to innovate as titles go.

We had a great time. Though Marylanders are definitely spoiled by the Baltimore Aquarium, there was an earthiness about the NE spot that makes it just as fascinating and fun.

By that, I mean that it is smaller and you spend more time looking at the same animals - mostly the penguins and the fish, sharks and turtles in this one big tank surrounded by a spiral walkway - so that they become intriguing creatures over and over again, so much so that they are your friends by the end of the trip, and if you are like me, you are absolutely grateful and awed the God loves us so much to give us animals as our earthly companions.

When we were at an early dinner after the trip (At Sel de la Terre, a lovely French restaurant with the best sandwich-and-paprika-potato-chip lunches), S's dad asked the table about our favorite part of the aquarium. He liked the penguin feeding the best, and took as much video as possible of it. S's mom like this one fish, "the speeder" we called him, who was doing dogged laps around the spiral tank. We'd ask each other, "Where's the speeder?" and sure enough, this guy would zoom by like a speed walker among mere mortals and make us all laugh. My favorite was Myrtle the turtle, a 75 year old tortoise who's favorite food is brussel sprouts.

Tomorrow everyone but Dr. Y, who's presenting at a conference in Cambridge, will have a bit of a breather from all the activity. I will need to run and go to a book study I just joined, and in between, be preparing for the study hopefully enjoying some conversions with the Y's minus one. On Wednesday, we'll do one last touristy thing, though we haven't decided what yet.

In the mean time, I am sure to relive all the color and craziness we saw at the aquarium today. The earth is simply bursting with beauty, and my little mind cannot contain it.