TO THE AQUARIUM...CHOO, CHOO!...
We had forgotten how much fun we have here. I am so glad we made it back before we return to school next week. Mom is having issues...as usual with returning. Her dream job has not become available yet--stay at home mom extraordinaire. We have been up one freeway and down the other from one side of Houston to the other this summer and loving every minute of it. Mom knows her days are numbered. It won't be too much longer before I actually want to stay at school with my friends instead of take the summer off with her at home. In fact I have mentioned my friends several times this summer and I really don't seem too stressed out about returning either. This of course is good news, but once again showing how quickly I am growing up. We will see what happens next Tuesday when I grace the doors of LMS full time again.

Back on track now...the weather men called for rain all week...HA! We had cooler weather and shine galore. We were thrilled and ever so grateful. Afternoon showers did not put a damper on our adventures one bit. We rode the carousel 4 times I switched animals each time we rode. The ferriswheel 2 times. It was up so high I spied the guitar on the Hard Rock Cafe building. I remembered eating there with mom before we went to the Nutcracker last year. I loved the tattoed waiters and all the music. I made mom promise she would take me back for my birthday. We wern't finshined though...we rode the train a whopping 7 times and all of this was before we even stepped foot inside the aquarium. The train took us right thru the shark exibit, and you know me, I was wide eyed and pointing in every direction. I was having such a good time with mom. I called all the shots and mom was content to soak up my smiles and play right along beside me. We picked out our favorites; mine had lots of teeth of course and moms was a Saw Fish. FYI-I knew the names of the sharks before they were announced and a Saw Fish is not actually a shark. It is a member of the Ray family and yet it was still mom's favorite. They are endangered and cost the Aquarium 50,000 dollars a piece. Whew! The train took us around the ground and curved us right beside a small body of water...out jumped a mechanical shark! AGGGGHHHH! I jumped right out my skin the fist go round. I knew what to expect the next 6 times and snuggled closer to mom as we drew closer to the shark. I kept reminding myself that "it's not real...just pretend."

When we finally made it inside we were hungry. Sharks may only eat every 3 days, but I prefer every 3 hours. Shhhh, don't tell...we ate our lunch right in front of the white tigers. They were chewing up some very interesting meat and so we chewed right along with them. According to the spokesperson Tigers as well as Oranguatans will become extinct in the wild in the year 2010--that is next year people! There are less than 3,000 tigers left in the wild. Their habits are being destroyed for mining purposes...money that is. Do you know what the leading cause of that is? The aluminum can. Please recycle! It is so hard to imagine that these animals alongside the Rhinos and Polar Bears will only be seen in zoos and aquariums. What a shame. We learned so much about the tigers from the keeper. He said that in the wild they are solitary and need about 25 miles of territory. If they cross another tiger in the wild they will typically kill eachother for the space. This is obviously not the case at the aquarium and therefore the animals are in a perminant state of adolesence never fully maturing. These tigers are the children of tigers that are rescued from the wild. They have a sanctuary in Decatur. There are 4 of them at the Aquarium and they all have very different personalities. Oddly enough, these tigers were born to parents that were orange with black stripes. Hum...maybe I got my brown eyes the same way. In captivity, the main source of food for these tigers is a carnivore mix. It is literally a whole cow or other animal ground up; hair, eyes, hooves and all. Yummy, huh? As I listened to the facts, I asked the keeper my own question..."do they like hot meat or cold meat?" Mom was so proud of me. My thinking brain at work again. The answer is they eat it at room temperature. The meat is stored in the fridge so when it comes time to eat it is thawed out. On really hot days, they are served a specialty...blood pops! EWWWW! It is all the fat and blood that is drained from the meat and then frozen into blood cubes of sorts.

Tigers knowledge complete we moved on...we were up close and able to touch sharks and rays. Mom was hands on and ready to encourage me. It took me a few attempts, but I stuck my hands right in. The trouble was reaching them. I was hanging off the ledge up to my elbows in water with a camera and video camera in my face...it was the slightest bit akward, but mom was able to get a keeper to help us out. He very gently lifted the sharks up to the surface so I could touch them. My response was simple, "Rough." The rays were much more social. We learned an interesting fact too. Their barbs are like our fingernails. The keepers trim them off every 3 months to prevent injury. Good to hear that. They were so squishy! A bit slimy feeling too. I reached in a dozen times or more to touch these guys and they loved the attention. We saw everything from a conch (have you ever seen the actual creature?) to a lionfish and more.

It was an amazing day and I was the perfect date for mom. Before leaving we hit the train one more time...the conductor had to see us coming. As we were exiting we heard the crash of thunder, saw our first flash of lightening and felt our first sprinkles too. Yep, the rain was on the way. We jogged to the car laughing getting "soakin" before the downpour began. I slept so soundly on the way home no doubt dreaming of all the sea creatures and fun we had. I am already asking when we can return. I wish they had a season pass too.