Life: Idiotropic

It's done.  It's official.  We are finally members of the CAC which means that we can go to the Oceanographic, the Hemispheric, and the science museum whenever we want now without buying tickets.  Plus we get discounts and invitations to special members only things and advance notice to other special events so, all in all I'm quite happy.  Besides, my membership photo isn't horrible.  I think that's the best part.

The aquarium is another one of Calatrava's creations thus it has it's own flare.  Instead of going inside of one gigantic building, the exhibits are divided according to ocean habitat and put into separate unique buildings.  Connecting them is a series of nice trails with landscaping and several large pools of water where you can see the seals, pelicans, flamingos, and other creatures.  Overall, a pretty nice place.  Second only to my favorite in Monterrey.
So, today was our first day ever at the Oceanographic and we had a great time.  A brief rain drove all the school groups out of the prime-front-and-center dolphin show seats, so we moved over, sat on our maps, and saw the dolphins a bit closer.  This is the first time that I've seen trainers participating in a dolphin show.  In fact, there were times that it looked more like a trainer show than a dolphin one.  They rode the dolphins, were thrown into the air by the dolphins, and took the spotlight whenever they could.  Safe to say that every kid there now wants to be a dolphin trainer.  It looked like a lot of fun.

Contentment for a day.  The girls enjoyed each area and I enjoyed the challenge of taking pictures of these moving targets.  Saw a beluga whale, a couple walruses, seals and sealions, sharks, etc...   The world's ugliest fish lives here in packs and it was further proven today that the only thing that kids learned from "Finding Nemo" is that the clown fish is really called a Nemo and that blue fish is really a Dori.  Dozens of excited Spanish kids yelling, "Mira!  Es Nimo!  Hay dos Nimos!  Mira, Dori!" while running back and forth pointing at the little fish.