Strange Pulse

This whale is smiling at you!

We went to the Long Beach Aquarium. Elijah and I did, I mean—Cat’s in Seattle for the weekend visiting grandparents, and Daniel took Nathaniel to Magic Mountain for his birthday. Elijah doesn’t enjoy theme parks, so we went to the Aquarium.

First thing I saw worth taking pictures of were the jellyfish. I could’ve stayed there all day taking pictures of these things. Unfortunately my camera sucks and Elijah didn’t want to stand around while I got lost in picture-taking, so I only got a few.

It was super crowded. This is a giant tank full of sharks:

Sharks must be really popular. Seemed like they were everywhere. Outside there’s a petting tank full of sharks and rays. You can touch them as they swim by, but only with two fingers (to prevent injury to them, not to you). I thought a shark would be slimy, but it was textured. Sort of meshlike? Can’t quite describe it. But it was cool. I touched a shark! It was only 2 feet long, but still.

I did not touch this manta ray, although I could have (this was the petting tank):

I did not touch this shark:

But it’s funny how they just love to swim right up by you, over and over again. Maybe they’re looking for a way out of the tank.

The spider crabs CREEPED ME OUT.

This little guy was a total crack up:

Especially since he was sitting in a tank with seasnakes.

We caught cleaning time. There were about four men in this tank cleaning it.

This gives you an idea of the size of this manta ray!

Cute huh? A Finding Nemo tank!