ONE FUN THING: Downtown Aquarium

I'm not big on resolutions, I never bother with them for New Year's or anything.  However, one piece of advice I got several times, most importantly from two oncology pharmacists, was to just try to live life as normally as possible.   This sounds OK, but I have no idea what "normal" is anymore.  Most of my fall was spent feeling kind of crappy, until I figured out that a bunch of ibuprofen would help.

So, I'm not really interested in "normal," although I understand the importance of it.  However, I did make one resolution, and that is each weekend would include "One fun thing."   


One fun thing, as of yet, has no serious parameters, it just must be somewhat outside of "normal" for Sarah and I, and it must be fun.   Incidentally, we are currently taking suggestions for "One Fun Things."  It can be as simple as game night, or as extravagant as a weekend away.  It just must be fun.


This weekend was especially good, since technically, we had three fun things.   The first was my bike ride, which is definitely outside the norm by now.   The second was dinner at some friends' house last night, which was delicious and it was great to see them, since their friendship and generosity means so much, especially at this time.


Today's fun thing was going to the "Downtown Aquarium."  Neither of us had ever been there before, and we'd been meaning to go for some time.   $30 got the both of us a self guided tour which took about 2 hours or so.   

I honestly did not expect much from the aquarium since Denver is so far from any serious body of water.   While this aquarium cannot compare with the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California (what can?), Sarah and I were very impressed.  


The neat thing about the Downtown Aquarium is all the tubes and tunnels which allow you to see the fish from above and below, instead of just from the side.   As you can see, we got a shot of a ray from below, and further on the tour we stood over some clear "portholes" in the floor which allowed observation of some sharks.


The Denver Aquarium also had a few birds, and some reptiles as well.  I hate snakes and eel, so we skipped by those pretty quickly.  They also have a tiger, which was interesting.   We saw his "tiger toys" which were about the size of a basketball and which he destroys in about 10 minutes (reportedly).  


The other thing I was disappointed to see were lionfish.  I have hated lionfish since I was a kid and saw them at the Milwaukee zoo.  They are gross and nasty and venomous.  As an aside, at Disney World this year, we saw some kids playing with stuffed lionfish.   Even the stuffed animal is gross, but I ask, "what sort of a kid would want to cuddle up with that ugly sea monster?"   In addition to just being as ugly as they are, lionfish are now a serious problem in the SE and caribbean.

I have been to a few aquariums before, but one thing I have never seen in person was a shark swimming around just showing off the chompers.  Yikes!   You can SCUBA (well, not me once I start bleomycin) or snorkel in these tanks, but I cannot imagine wanting to.   It was amazing, instead of mouth-kept-closed, two sharks were just showing off.  


One person at the aquarium had apparently bought his buddies the opportunity to SCUBA in there.  He did mention asking about sharks, and was apparently told the sharks are kept "well fed."
Then the guy joked asking if they went around counting all the fish in the aquarium.


I've attached a few other pictures I liked.  I'd never seen this weird polka-dotted fish before.  Sort of reminds me of a Holstein, but I am from Wisconsin.


The Downtown Aquarium also has a restaurant to eat in.   I'm told it is quite good, but we didn't stop. I suspect that eating there may be a "One Fun Thing" of the future.


The Downtown Aquarium was a nice distraction for the day.  It only took a few hours, which was perfect since so many other errands needed to be done today (and yesterday), in preparation for the weeks ahead.


Tomorrow is the first day of chemotherapy, so I can say that despite being extremely busy (with things yet still to do!), it was a very nice "last" weekend before things really start rolling for me.