June 2013
Lots of things Aquatic
Visit to the Vancouver Aquarium
We try to be at the Aquarium when it opens
(10am) and we make a bee line for the Beluga Exhibit. For a
few minutes we have it alone with the whales. I'm still
surprised at how much the kids aren't completely taken over by the
exhibit - they look for a few minutes, but they don't stop in
wonder at the size of the tank, the size of the acrylic wall or
that they are looking at an animal larger than humans from
thousands of km away.
New for me this time was the Northern Fur Seals. These are
classically "cute" animals - large dark eyes and
interactive. I don't remember the aquarium having these
animals - from what I understand it was a difficult year for pups
this year (not a lot of fish) so there were lots of babies
starving. I think these are some of the animals that were
"rescued".
Richmond Nature House
I've been to the Richmond Nature house a
number of times and it seems to get better and better. They
have a small pond (recently enlarged) that has a family of pet
store released turtles. Nara likes turtles and Helen likes
the food in the Richmond malls so the Richmond Nature House + Mall
food makes for a good Saturday morning.
We were really struck by the dragon flies
on this day out. There were half a dozen species of dragon
flies buzzing around the small pond, fighting over reeds and
space. We sat on the bridge and watched the drama - we could
have watched for hours.
A surprise for me was the frogs. We went a few months ago
and the naturalist said there were frogs, but she couldn't find
any. This time, we found two (without assistance) and they
weren't running away when we got close. These are "Green
Frogs" - an invasive species that doesn't belong here. These
frogs aren't as bad a bullfrogs, but they aren't native to the
area. I was happy I could show Nara a real frog.
Happy Birthday Claira!
Claira turned one at the end of the month. We got a cake and
had people over for a little party. Claira seemed to enjoy
seeing the candle blown out.
Claira has been a bit of
challenge to feed - she really enjoys drinking milk, but we haven't
had much luck with solids. Claira doesn't like baby food or
fruit so we weren't surprised when she didn't eat much cake.
That said, Nara generously offered to eat Claira's piece.
Tags: Vancouver Aquarium(10), Richmond Nature Park(8), dragonfly(3), amphibian(2), jellyfish(1), pond(1)
People: Claira(10), Nara(9), Helen(4), Jennie(1)
From: John Harvey Photo > Blogs for 2024 to 2005 > June 2013
Last Modified Sunday, January 29th, 2023 at 22:04:08 Edit
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Nara
and Claira still had a great time. In many ways, the
Aquarium is completely overwhelming for a three year old -
seemingly endless windows to look in, each with a different
"lesson" or thing to find. As a parent, it can be
hard to figure out what to emphasize - I want to talk about how
the animals relate to each other and how they aren't so
different from us, but it's hard to explain that to a child
wowed by the novelty of new.
