chaos7

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Free Willy

Over the weekend on a rainy day, 5.5 (the .5 being Willem) of us piled into the car and headed to the aquarium in Corpus, just a short drive away from the beach house. As we crossed the great arched bridge that towered over our destination, we noticed the mammoth snake-like line of people with the same brilliant idea as ours. We all moaned and slumped in our seats like disappointed children. What’s worse than jockeying for position in front of a small wall of glass hoping to catch a glimpse of what is too terrified to swim out of its hiding place? We didn’t bring the stroller to the beach house and I’d forgotten the sling at home so I rigged a makeshift version with my sarong and stuffed baby in there as we ventured out to find our place in line. Thankfully, the rain was light but my load wasn’t. When we entered the sardine can of fish and warm bodies, I noticed a sign that said “Stroller rentals - $3.” Halleluiah! About the same time, a woman swooped out of nowhere and claimed the last one. Foiled! We collectively scrambled to the dolphin show that was just beginning. Of course the crowd was about 10 people deep so we decided to go down below the performance pool where the underwater version could be viewed…sorta. You could see the lower half of the poor dolphins race about, shoot out of water and come crashing back down like bags of sand. They had scratches on their bodies resembling graffiti tags and seemed cramped on their aquatic stage. It was heartbreaking. My son really could’ve cared less about the main event and only wanted to put his mouth on the railing and touch the hair of people sitting around us. The highlight of the show was when one of the dolphins pooped. That, I’m sad to say, got the biggest reaction from the group.

We pushed our way out and made the rounds trying to view turtles, sharks, otters, and other captive animals. Willem wanted to lead his own tour and nearly disappeared in a sea of kneecaps and Bermuda shorts. Next he decided it was time to nurse and made his trademark “tap the keg” sounds and ducked down in the general vicinity of said kegs (I make them sound HUGE, don’t I?). He twisted and fussed as I tried to discreetly yank one out. The sarong helped with the coverage issue but the situation was still very apparent to those with wandering eyes (i.e. bored daddies, single daddies, young and old daddies). We all wandered around aimlessly, trying to find the value in the money spent and soon decided to throw in the towel. We half-heartedly piled back into the car, headed back and FINALLY finished watching the 3-day long movie, King Kong. Are you kidding me? That movie stunk! And what was with all of those giant bug scenes? Don’t even get me started.

3 comments:

jen said...

I forgot my stroller at the mall one time. Luckily they were on sale at JC Penny and I snagged one!
I know what you mean about King Kong I thought it was going pretty good until the entire Land of the Lost scene. It was like Godzilla vs. King Kong. It took us two days to watch. I felt like I was in a bad dream. Everybody knows how it ends and they could have got there a lot sooner! I did cry when King Kong died though. How stupid is that?

Anonymous said...

We had an equally disappointing experience at the Detroit Zoo. I remember it as being such a magical place when I was a child. This time, I watched in horror as my child tried to run the gauntlet of uncaring and angry adults. I was sure she was going to be pushed to her death several times. I tried to carry her, but she wanted to "do it self". That, coupled with seeing lethargic and cramped animals really depressed me. One can make the arguement for the conservation of endangered species all day long, but I am less likely to participate in the unfortunate imprisonment of animals again. It was very sad. Too many people and unhappy conditions for the animals.

James Grayson said...

If you took photos of the dolphins pooping I think we should see it. Just for fun. Baby poop gets boring.