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When you look down and see that you were playing upon the greatest oceanic truth
My niece loved the sharks and rays at the New England Aquarium. Every time a cownose ray slid under her hand with its silt-soft fluttering wings, she let out a shout of delight. She also enjoyed the tidepool touch tank where she held a starfish and listened for nearly twenty minutes to a presentation about penguins, which was considerably more attention for an adult talking than either my mother or I had expected. She seemed indifferent to the lionfish, but loved the harbor seals doubling like dappled pewter between the rocks; ran around two turns of the giant ocean tank to follow a sea turtle, but was really enraptured by an exhibit of yellow garden eels swaying like seagrass in the sand. She wanted me to sign with my fingers to the cuttlefish, but I explained that I was not going to insult a total stranger just so that it would change color. We will probably go back for the special exhibit on sharks: she had worn her shark T-shirt special, but after nearly three hours we ran out of time and had to return her to her parents, which was fine because she had run around happily looking at other pieces of ocean instead. I took some pictures, of which my favorite is the accidental blurred reflection in which she appears mer-like. I got her a small green glass sea turtle which she is still too young to play with, but I told her it was a Glixman sea turtle. The Glixman turtles were invented by my mother in a set of stories she would tell her siblings in the '50's and '60's: because they moved so often, California, Arizona, Mississippi, New Jersey, Kansas, Oklahoma, I may have left a state out, they had to carry their homes with them. At least one of the written stories survived into my childhood. I remember the turtles were very fond, like Paddington with marmalade, of Spanish rice. So far my niece's life appears much more stationary, but I think it's still a good tradition to have access to. She associates it besides with the baby sea turtle rescued by Moana when she passes the sea's test. The toy she got to play with was a blinky translucent blue rubber shark, about which she announced to strangers as we left the aquarium, "I love my shark!"
(She wanted to listen to the soundtrack for Moana (2016) all the way to the aquarium and back, which posed occasional problems when we had to put the songs on hold in order to navigate Boston. I explained this was urban wayfinding, but I think she was unconvinced. At the moment her idea of "How Far I'll Go" mostly consists of shouting on the long notes, but she appears to be making a commendable effort to learn the Samoan and Tokelauan as well as the English of "We Know the Way" and I would love for her to succeed. Sure, right now it's phonetic, but so was Yiddish for me when I was a child.)
In other news, the last forty-eight hours are evidently some kind of jackpot of butch women, since tonight on the 87 I saw a woman who looked like Burn Gorman as Hermann Gottlieb in Pacific Rim (2013). Minus the parka, but she had the plaid, the tight cheekbones, the lean mouth, the short russet hair, and the glasses on a string. The configuration of the bus was not such that I had an easy way to approach her and say anything, also she had her instrument case in front of her and few things in life are more awkward than peering around a stranger's cello (or, God forbid, double bass), but that is a thing that really happened. One writes these kinds of characters, but does not expect to encounter them on public transit. I hope she does cosplay. All she'd have to do is show up.
(She wanted to listen to the soundtrack for Moana (2016) all the way to the aquarium and back, which posed occasional problems when we had to put the songs on hold in order to navigate Boston. I explained this was urban wayfinding, but I think she was unconvinced. At the moment her idea of "How Far I'll Go" mostly consists of shouting on the long notes, but she appears to be making a commendable effort to learn the Samoan and Tokelauan as well as the English of "We Know the Way" and I would love for her to succeed. Sure, right now it's phonetic, but so was Yiddish for me when I was a child.)
In other news, the last forty-eight hours are evidently some kind of jackpot of butch women, since tonight on the 87 I saw a woman who looked like Burn Gorman as Hermann Gottlieb in Pacific Rim (2013). Minus the parka, but she had the plaid, the tight cheekbones, the lean mouth, the short russet hair, and the glasses on a string. The configuration of the bus was not such that I had an easy way to approach her and say anything, also she had her instrument case in front of her and few things in life are more awkward than peering around a stranger's cello (or, God forbid, double bass), but that is a thing that really happened. One writes these kinds of characters, but does not expect to encounter them on public transit. I hope she does cosplay. All she'd have to do is show up.
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I love everything about this comment.
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To be perfectly honest, she probably would.
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It was a good day out! I am also now wondering, seeing how much my niece loves Moana, if three and three-quarters is too young to try her on Lilo & Stitch and Ponyo.
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Thank you!
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That makes sense and I hadn't thought of it. Thanks!
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Seriously!
I don't think my niece has discovered Moana yet but she also sings by yelling on the long notes and it's pretty entertaining to observe.
There is no way I am going to tell mine to stop. At least not until we're on a really long road trip.
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Previously she has displayed a strong and consistent interest in things like bridges and trains, which I am definitely not going to discourage, but this is the first time she's shown a preference regarding the natural world and I am really happy about it.
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Thanks! I definitely want to take her to the Charles River Dam, where she can watch the locks.
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Aww, your niece sounds great!
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I really like her!
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Yes on both counts!
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I didn't know what she would think of the aquarium, so I tried not to have too many expectations of the day, and I am so glad that she loved it. We got a membership. She didn't get to spend anywhere near as much time with the octopus.
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Future targets of opportunity for your niece (and family) might be the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy's Chatham Shark Center and their Gills Club. I've visited the former (small but very nicely set up), and I wish something like the latter had been available back in the day.
Might be time for a return visit to the Aquarium. Thanks for the reminder!
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The sea is important to me. I am glad it looks as though it's going to be important to my niece.
Future targets of opportunity for your niece (and family) might be the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy's Chatham Shark Center and their Gills Club.
I didn't even know that existed and it looks wonderful. Thank you! We have family friends on the Cape, so North Chatham is not an utterly unreasonable idea for a day trip.
Might be time for a return visit to the Aquarium. Thanks for the reminder!
You're welcome! It has changed over the years, as all museums of Boston have since my childhood, but it remains worth the visit.
That's a lovely icon, by the way.
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Everyone was pretty wiped out by the end of the day, but it was worth it.
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I wonder if that's the aquarium that was probably my first-ever--when I was little there weren't direct flights from Halifax to Newark, so my mom and I used to have stopovers in Boston, and at least a couple of times the stops were long enough that she took me to the aquarium before our connecting flight. (Assuming I'm remembering correctly! I was Very Small.)
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Thank you! It was a good time.
when I was little there weren't direct flights from Halifax to Newark, so my mom and I used to have stopovers in Boston, and at least a couple of times the stops were long enough that she took me to the aquarium before our connecting flight. (Assuming I'm remembering correctly! I was Very Small.)
There hasn't been another aquarium in Boston in my lifetime, and you could certainly get to it from Logan easily on the Blue Line. I'd be willing to believe it. Do you remember anything about the exhibits or the aquarium itself?
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Very, very little other than impressions too vague to try to describe. The only thing I remember at all clearly is that there was a sort of...petting-zoo kind of tank, probably pretty low down so kids could reach it, and that I held a starfish.
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There is one of those at the New England Aquarium.
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