Living Planet

Today we took the kids to the Living Planet Aquarium. We go there pretty often and we have passes so we get in for free. As soon as we pulled into the parking lot, Bear got so excited and started yelling "We're at that aquarium now!!" We walked around and looked at all the familiar exhibits. The octopus was extremely active today. That was really neat to watch because normally he just sits there and does nothing. Of course the most exciting thing is always the petting tank. The kids are allowed to reach into the water and pet the stingrays. The rays don't always cooperate, but the kids almost always get a touch in. The adults can easily reach to the bottom of the tank, as long as we're willing to get a little wet. Bug and I had gotten our stingray fix, and we decided to watch the sharks. The shark tank is located just behind the petting tank. Jeff and Bear were still over at the petting tank, when something happened.

There was a man there, with his children. He was wearing one of those backpacks that a baby can sit in, and he was trying to help his Daughter touch one of the stingrays. She looked like she was about 7 or 8. The man held his Daughter out over the tank by one arm and one leg. Unfortunately this made him top heavy and he slipped. His Daughter went under water and the man tried to catch himself with his hands. The baby in the backpack shifted and almost fell into the tank. This made it impossible for the man to push himself back up. Jeff walked over and pulled the man out of the tank and after about a full minute, the man was able to pull his Daughter out of the tank.

That poor girl was so shocked. She didn't know what to do, so she was just sitting in the middle of the stingrays not moving. After they all got out of the water, a lady had to walk up and fix the baby because he was falling out of the backpack and his leg was stuck inside. I think the baby was the most shocked out of all of them. One moment his world was peaceful and great and then he almost went swimmming with the stingrays! It's times like this that I wished I had the camera with me. What a great memory!