Under the sea

It’s raining in England.

Again.

We actually don’t mind it all that much except that it makes finding entertaining things to do on the weekends a bit difficult. This past weekend we decided to fill our time by visiting the Bristol Aquarium. I’ve always felt like Aquariums are a bit like Rolo’s, always good but often overshadowed by some other candy. Don’t get me wrong, I love Rolo’s but somehow I never buy them because there are two or three other candies I like just a bit more.  In the same fashion I thoroughly enjoy aquariums but somehow they never end up in my top list of things to do on a weekend.

However we have now been in Bristol long enough to cycle through most of the other entertainment options. And seeing as Mother Nature is trying to submerge all of Southwest England in the span of a few days we decided it was a good time to see what it might be like to live with the fishes.

When we first arrived we were greeted by Santa’s pet shark Leopold who stands guard over the exhibits to make sure visitors don’t tap the glass, reach into the tanks or use flash photography, which is why this post will be light on photos.

Of the few photo’s we attempted these are three of the better ones.

Unfortunately, all the pictures of the Octopus feeding we witnessed were to blurry to include. That certainly doesn’t diminish how fascinating it was to watch the Octopus as it meandered around its tank searching for tasty treats and attempting to crawl out of the tank as the handler answered questions and let the Octopus wrap its tentacles around her arms as she fed him. It was one of the neatest things I’ve seen.

Amanda was so impressed with the Octopus that as we were walking to the next set of exhibits she nearly walked right past this tank of fluorescent fish swimming frantically for some attention.

She also had to look twice at this display because she thought she recognized a familiar species.

We finished our tour with Amanda and half a dozen five year olds claiming that they had just seen Nemo the Common Clownfish.  

Unfortunately I had the hapless task of informing Amanda that it was in reality Nemo’s lesser known second cousin Thomas the Tomato Clownfish. A rather sad ending to an otherwise wonderful afternoon.

Now if I could only find some Rolo’s.