A trip to the Aquarium

One of my colleagues invited Bug and I to go to the Aquarium this past Saturday. It was going to be a tight fit with me having tennis lessons from 9:30 - 10:30, and Bug's lessons starting at 2:00, but making friends is high on the list of priorties right now . . . especially since our best friends left to go back to Chicago this past Friday. So, my answer was a resounding "yes" . . . "we would love to go to the Aquarium!" And we had such a good time. My colleague has THE cutest 3-year-old son, and he swept Bug and I right off our feet.

Here are Miles, Catherine, and Bug in front of one of the exhibits:

The Downtown Aquarium is not as large as the Shedd in Chicago, or the one in Baltimore, but the exhibits are great and well-maintained. They even have large tigers in the Rainforest area . . . and I have never seen a tiger at an Aquarium, so that was cool. And there were lots of sharks, barracudas, eels. There even was an exhibit of a flash flood that got a bunch of us wet and scared the bejeezus out of us.

I love sea horses, and these guys are "Pot Belly Seahorses" . . . . (little beer drinkers maybe??)

These fish had HUGE popeyes that eerily glowed when Bug took her picture:

Bug wanted a picture of her and Miles in front of the clown fish exhibit. When she squatted down to be at his level, he squatted too. Very cute!

It was a very fun time. Bug was so captivated by Miles that she bought him a stuffed otter at the gift shop. We capped off our time at the Aquarium with a picnic lunch outside. Catherine's husband climbs huge mountains all over the world, and he's based out of Boulder. So we've been invited up to their place in Boulder next for a hike. I'm very excited about that. Bug hiked around Pike's Peak when she was at camp, but I've yet to make my first hike. Which means I've got to hit the Stair Mill at the gym.

It was a hot day, over 102 at the tennis courts, and Bug got a bit dehydrated during her lesson. So we cut it short and came home to air conditioning. Later in the evening, I went on yet another bad date. This one was with a PhD and a nationally known expert in environmental and enery issues and. . . oh my goodness . . . were we enthralled with ourselves. Geez . . . . luckily the food at Piatti was delicious. Other than asking me whether I had ever done any international mission work overseas . . . ??????? (what the *#@*???), I don't think he asked one question about me or my daughter. I've never had as many dates in my life as I've had the past 7 months, but I'm starting to think Colorado men are similiar to those in Alaska . . . . when I visited there a few years ago, everyone told me that, as far as the chances of finding a man in Alaska go, "the odds are good, but the goods are odd." Seriously . . . . . .