Living Planet Aquarium, Part One

Back in December, I was talking to a friend about animals, and when asked if I've always liked rabbits, I said that I've always really liked dogs and penguins--and that someday I'd like to be able to pet a penguin. My friend asked if I knew that The Living Planet Aquarium had "penguin encounters" and you could go behind the scenes with the penguins. I totally wanted to check it out, and Adam and I decided that we would do that for our anniversary. We made our reservation (actually for the day before because they were already booked on our anniversary) and then wondered how much time we'd need to look at the other stuff. The aquarium's website says that most groups make it through in 1-2 hours. We figured, you know, being adults and not slowed down by any children, that we'd take about an hour (or less) and do our penguin encounter and be done...and then we go to the aquarium and it was AWESOME and we stayed there for three and a half hours!
So, what did we do for three and a half hours?
Well, we started out looking at some fish...which didn't really impress me that much. But then we got to the otters and they were super cute! There are three otters and they're very fun and playful. They have a "saucer" style sled that they like to flip over in the water and they like to swirl around each other. They kinda seemed like water puppies, because they're super excited and hyper like dogs.
We saw some glow in the dark jelly fish, and an octopus, and some sharks (there were three different varieties). We saw sting rays, and we actually got to touch them! You can take two fingers and gently stroke them as they go by, which is kind of a strange sensation. They're actually pretty interesting to watch because sometimes it looks like they're going to flop themselves out of their pool.
We saw an 13.5 foot anaconda (which someone had as a PET and then realized maybe they didn't want and donated to the aquarium) and piranhas and the smallest member of the crocodile/alligator family.

(That's us in the penguin encounter room.)

After walking through most of the aquarium, it was time for the penguin encounters. The two of us, plus six other people, got to go behind the scenes and see the penguins. We weren't allowed to touch or feed them, but it was still really cool. There's a room that connects to the penguin enclosure and they open that up and let the penguins wander in and out as much as they want. There are 11 Gentoo penguins currently, and I think almost all of them came into the room at some point. One penguin in particular, Sampson, spent a lot of time in the room, and he actually seemed to really like Adam; he kept coming to stand by Adam and would bend down and nibble at his shoelaces and pant leg. It was really funny to see how often he kept coming back--and it was really tempting to reach out and pet him, but I behaved myself. It was really neat to be able to be so close to the penguins and the employee running the encounter shared some pretty cool information about penguins.
When we finished that up, it was just about time for the sting ray feeding, so we decided to stick around for that. The sting rays will come right up along the side of their pool and suck the food out of your hand or off of a feeder. (We didn't pay the extra money to be able to feed them, but it was cool to watch.)
When that was done, it was just about time for the octopus feeding, so we had to stay for that, too, right? Apparently octupi are master escape artists because they can squeeze through any opening larger than their beaks (which are the only hard part of their bodies). This octopus lived up to that, as it tried to crawl up the employee's arm as she was trying to feed it! YUCK! I don't think I ever would want to touch an octopus.
Well, after the octopus feeding, the next thing up was the PENGUIN feeding...and we really had to stay for that. We went back to the penguin area, and the penguins were zooming through the water, jumping in and out of the pool. The employees said that the penguins always get super excited before feeding time, and it was neat to watch. When they fed the penguins, they went nuts again, diving after the fish as they were tossed into the water, and then jumping out to go to the employee who gave fed them individually as well. It was just super fun to watch.
After that, we realized if we didn't want to get stuck in Friday rush hour traffic, we better get out of there, so we left--but I pretty much want my own aquarium now. I'll add pictures and videos as I get them ready, but really, if you are anywhere close to the aquarium, you just need to go visit it for yourself.