sea life...

    Last week we went to the aquarium. My son is forever begging to go to the zoo and I will not. I was an animal rights activist for many years and I still feel they are mostly not cool-at least for me. Where I grew up the "zoo" was the Wild Animal Park and it is HUGE. The focus of the Wild Animal Park seemed to be education and conservation/preservation and it didn't seem as bad, there were no cages and many large natural habitats. I just don't like to see animals in cages, especially the big cats, it just breaks my heart. The Zoo in Seattle is pretty depressing and small with many cages, somewhat sickly looking animals on concrete floors and bad bleach-y/dirty smells all around. It's a total bummer. Don't even get me started on the elephants.  So anyway, as we drove by the zoo for the hundredth time (it's very close by and we usually drive by it daily) the begging began... I thought aloud "How about the aquarium?" and that seemed like a good enough compromise to him so we set out and went the next day...
  I still do not enjoy seeing sea life in captivity but I think in some cases the good may outweigh the bad. I think it is necessary for many people to actually SEE these magical sea creatures in order to have the proper reverence for their lives and respect for the ocean in general. The Seattle aquarium is very education based and seems to be quite clean and roomy. Mostly native fish and smaller or rescued creatures (I can't even explain how awful I felt when I saw the shark exhibit at sea world, I am just very sensitive to life. I guess that's the best way of putting it...). The children loved it.

  The big octopus was so lovely. I only took pictures from his underside, I didn't want to flash in his eyes (not sure if they are sensitive to that but, just in case).

  That is a "salmon ladder"

starfish everywhere!