Fun at the Aquarium

Since Jake's teacher only got one volunteer to chaperon the last field trip, the mommy guilt surfaced and I agreed to go along on this one (passing up a free lunch elsewhere, I might add).


Oh how I've missed riding a school bus (NOT!)...


It was a beautiful ride, I have to admit...even if it was twisty, slow and lasted an hour and a half each way.


When we were almost there, this Japanese tour bus pulled along side. They were going nuts over this bus full of American children. It was really very cute to see all of these old people pointing, laughing, waving, etc.


And here we are...get a load of these steps. But this is just the beginning!





It's quite the thrill over here to see local kids in school uniforms...but usually it's the boys wanting to get their picture taken with Japanese school girls. If only Coree were here, this would have made for a very cute picture!


These things were all over the park. All kinds of sea life made out of landscaping. Pretty cool...but I won't bore you with the half dozen shots I took. You get the idea.


Thank heaven for escalators!


One of the many pics I took during the show. (Again, won't bore you with the rest. If you've been to Sea World, you've seen the same thing.) This was cute with the traditional Okinawan hat. But I just have to say, it was hard to impress since I lived in such close proximity to Sea World for 30+ years of my life. This reminded me of Sea World back in the 70's, but it was a cute show.


It was super crowded.


And here we are at the beginning of the main indoor exhibit. It was nice of Jake to wear orange so I could pick him out, even though this is not one of my favorite shirts. Incidentally, why is it that you can buy a boy a closet full of nice, presentable, collared shirts...and he will still go for the rattiest t-shirts, every time? Picking my battles.


Here are my charges, about to be eaten by a shark.


This I found SO funny. There are cleaning people everywhere! (Remember the airport?) It was very fitting that there would be a scuba janitor in the tank. I think he's holding a Magic Eraser. LOVE those things!


The only think Jake really cared to see was a box jellyfish. He was kind of bummed that they only had a display instead of a real one.


Another shot of our clever group.


These guys are eating their dead buddy. Pretty harsh!


When you exit the large exhibit, you walk under part of the tank. I arranged this fly-by earlier with these guys.


This is probably the part the kids will remember most...this massive network. Get it..."net" work. (I kill myself.)

So we're walking back to the bus and a friend of Jake's asks if he will sit by her on the bus ride back. Fully expecting Jake to say, "No, my mom is with me", I am STUNNED when he looks at me and says, "Is that OK?" I protest, "Then I'll have to sit by some strange kid!" To which he replies, "Or adult." They are both just staring at me, when little miss sunshine pops in with, "Today is my last day. We're leaving for Peru tomorrow."

OH! The old, "I'm shipping out for Peru in the morning" line! What, does she think I just fell off the turnip truck? Sheesh!


There's the happy couple, in the row behind the guy in the white hat...chatting away happily the whole ride, while I donned my iPod and tried not to make eye contact with the girl next to me.



I decided to be the better person and offered to photograph them one last time, before this was all just a memory and she was off to her new Peruvian life. She is pretty cute...and has impeccable taste in men, I might add!