12.12.12

For my birthday I was pretty stoked because of all my birthdays it was definitely the most epic. Not only was it 12/12/12 but I was also turning 24!! It seemed to good to be true. I got many well wishes and got taken out to dinner a lot (which is the best present, really). We thought we were going to go see a newborn baby elephant that was recently born at our Oregon Zoo but the baby isn't public viewing ready so I think we'll save that for Cody's birthday next month. But my dad had sent me an email about a new aquarium that was opening in Portland! I thought that it was in the beginning stages but upon reading the email it said that it was opening the 15th and the week leading up to it was open to season pass members. The email was for 50% off season passes and so I got my birthday wheels turning and told Cody that would be an awesome present from his parents for my birthday.
So instead of a zoo birthday I got the next best thing: an Aquarium birthday!!

There is another aquarium, the Oregon Coast Aquarium close to us but it is 3 hours away so we don't get out there that much. But this aquarium is only an hour from our house! It doesn't compare to the OCA in size or glamour (or money spent into equipping with things like killer whales per se) but this aquarium is definitely worth a visit. Whoever had the idea for how this aquarium was going to be set up had the right idea. Nearly every room has large tanks full of fish that you are actually encouraged to pet! There's other fish and marine life in private tanks to look at but the best part by far was getting to interact with the animals. Usually aquariums would have touching tanks full of star fish and anemones and the like but really we can go to the beach and get the same experience. So I was ecstatic at all the opportunities to get something far beyond that. 

yellow pufferfish

the iguana keeper said this guy was pretty much just like dog, just hanging out

a morray eel that I think was trying to smile at us?

The coolest room was just a giant tank about waist level full of tropical fish, bat rays, sting rays and SHARKS that you could touch and FEED. You can buy either fish food or ray and shark food. Naturally we opted for the rays and sharks. 

shark and ray bait

the bat rays were smaller and they're fins would glide up and down (like a bat flying)

There were big bamboo sharks but they were shy and stayed towards the middle. There were other smaller sharks that would swim around but by far the cutest things in the tank were little baby bonnet sharks. 

isn't he just the cutest?!!

They are kind of like hammer head sharks but they're head is shaped different. We couldn't pet the little guys because they said they were still getting acclimated. But we touched a lot of the big ol' sting rays and bat rays (they're the smaller ones). And I wouldn't leave without touching a shark. They're staff was so friendly and were constantly making sure we (personally) were getting a good experience. The best part is that we get to go back as many times as we want and I'm super stoked because they had a room saying Puffins were coming soon and a room all ready for some river otters which we overheard a staff member saying that they own the otters but they were stuck in Minnesota. If I had kids I would take them there in a heart beat. If Rose gets better in a car seat I'll try and convince Megan to bring her little ones because I know if Olive ever got to go there we would never hear the end of all her exciting experiences!

this is the only fish that wouldn't bolt the second you touch him

these are "mermaid purses"; they're eggs laid by the bamboo sharks which they've cut upon and sealed up again with some see-through material so you could see the tiny breathing embryos. And apparently all of them have been hatching albino

 The last part of the aquarium was a Lorikeet room. They have a larger version at the Oregon Zoo but these lorikeets were about a thousand times friendlier. At the zoo you have to work to get one to fly onto your hand to get them to drink the nectar in the cup. Here they literally flock to you. As soon as they see that cup in your hand they are on your shoulders, head, arms, back. They're everywhere.

 

Cody doesn't care for them to land on him so he was the designated picture taker. But I wasn't joking about how friendly these birds are, pretty soon Cody had one climbing up his pants! It was hillarious.

Such the good birthday.