Taking Jake Across the States: The Aquarium

Today we went to the Aquarium in Chicago. We saw an amazing number of different kinds of fish. They all looked so different and most of them looked really funny.

We saw the biggest snake I have ever seen in my life. It seemed as thick as a telephone pole and it just went on and on. We watched it eat a rat. There was also a smaller green snake that looked like the snake from jungle book. I liked him, he was pretty and looked sweet all curled up on a tree branch.

The frogies were so cute! They were so brightly colored and some of them were super tiny. There was one that apparently was especially poisonous and he strutted around like he knew it.

We went to an aquatic show with beluga whales, a sea lion, and some dolphins. The beluga whales were so big it was really impressive to see them jump all the way out of the water. The sea lion looked so happy and playful as he waved and did tricks for us. One of the dolphins got up on a platform and posed all fancy for us, and then they would do flips in the air ect... It was a very fun show.

We also saw a 15 minute "4-D experience" movie thing. It was a nature show with polar bears and penguins and elephants and a few others. They very effectively made the killer whale scary with intense music, chair vibrations in time with the music, and a stab in the back as it dramatically jumped out of the water with a seal in it's jaws. They also had cute little baby animals.

One of our favorite parts was the jelly fish exhibits. The had very appropriate "jelly fishy" music playing. They were all very cool and different. The really fluffy ruffley ones looked kinda girly. When the jelly fish ate they scrunched their long tentacles in their caps to get all the food in their mouths. Some of the jelly fish had such long tentacles that they would get tangled up with their buddy's.

In one of the last exhibits we waited to see the green swordfish for probably 40 minutes. While we were waiting there was a funny fish who was hanging out around me for a bit. (I think it was because of my yellow shirt or something) He had black and white stripes and yellow fins and one of his black stripes was perfectly placed to look like a really skinny long mustache. We said he looked French. We looked him up and apparently he is called a yellow-banded sweetlips fish.

Then when we got home Aunt Su made us her special homemade pizza! We tried throwing the pizza dough, but the dough was a little soft and we weren't very skilled. The pizza was super yummy.

This is Drew and I right outside the aquarium.

Here are some frogs:

The orange ones were so tiny.

A Piper fish:

This one had so many pretty colors.

I don't think this guy needs any explanation...he's just funny.

These are garden eels. They looked so cartoonish to me.

These are sea dragons. They were one of mom's favorites.

This bird was posing and he looked so pleasant:

These little blue fish looked like fairies or something. They glowed and shimmered.

This fish looked like a very grumpy alien scowling at us.

This eel literally poked his head up and smiled for me to take a picture.

The underwater plants were also pretty amazing. This one looked like a trumpet to me.

This sea horse was showing off for me.

It's hard to see them, but these fish swam so funny. They were totally upside down and the just moved from side to side like they were hanging by strings.

This guy was curious.

There were a whole row of these turtles on a log all making the same expression with their noses in the air.

This fish just swam around with his mouth open. He looked like he was complaining.

Cheese!

These fish were totally see through. There was some groovy background music and this fish looked like he was dancing to it.

These are archer fish. The reason they call them archer fish is because they shoot bugs out of the air with their spit. Shooting from underwater is really tricky because the water bends the light and makes it look like you're shooting somewhere else. They also figured out how to shoot it in a ball as opposed to a stream by shooting slower and then faster.