Reel Fishing

Well today wasn't your typical Tuesday. Mom called late in the afternoon and invited us for dinner. After a quick confab with Mike we decided to go. Whatever she was making was going to be better than I was planning (pancakes). Mom made a great dinner as always. Stuffed chicken and veggies. Once again no cheese sauce on the broccoli, what am I going to do with her?

After dinner we hustled over to Al's Aquarium store where every Tuesday at 7 they feed their shark. Now the three of us went over with Abby not really knowing what to expect. The were a few families hustling towards the door as the feeding occured at 7 shark (haha). The sign on the front door boasted a 500 gallon shark tank. Well I gotta be honest with you. I have no idea what 500 gallons looks like. Let me tell you a 500 gallon tank can comfortable hold a 5 foot shark and a 6 foot moray eel. I wasn't sure how interested Abby was going to be in it. I mean sure she loves Finding Nemo and Shark Tale, but this really isn't the same thing. The place was actually pretty packed with people to watch the feeding so I worked my way up as close as I could (about 10-15 feet away from the tank) and picked her up so she could see.

"Oh wow a big whale!" Whale. Shark. I wasn't about to argue with her. She watched for a minute and then got kind of restless while the man was giving us a brief talk about the shark. It's just over 5 feet long, 5 years old, gets fed once per week. The eel and shark have to divy up the food themselves and if one doesn't get their share they have to wait until next week. The fish they were feeding them were clamped to a chain and when they threw that in the tank, well then it got interesting. The shark immediatley clamped his teeth around the fish and started thrashing around so much it was flinging water out of the tank. I watched Abby closely to see how she would react since it was a pretty violent display. Her eyes were as round as dinner plates. "That's a great idea whale," she said with a big grin on her face.

As you can imagine the whale/shark finished it's dinner in record time. So afterwards we spent some time looking at the other fish in stock and they have tons of different varieties. Abby ran up and down all the aisles checking all the lower level tanks out. They even had one big tank set up like a reef with a Nemo and Dorie fish swimming around in it. What a thrill it was for Abby to see Nemo and Dorie in real life.

On the other side of the store was a regular pet store with birds, dogs, cats and such. They had one small room set aside for reptiles. Mom and I tried to take Abby in to look around, but she got one look at a lizard, shuddered and said "let's get out of here Mommy." That's my girl! Although the amount of time she spent checking out the hamsters, rats, etc really concerned me. Perhaps it's time to go over my "no rodent-like pets rule" with her.

So this evening was a big surprise. Something we never would have done ordinarily. The adults were just as entertained by the whole thing as Abby was. Abby couldn't wait to get back to Mom's to tell Eddie about the "whale eating dinner." Which is a testament to how excited she was because usually she tries not to talk to Eddie. Sure she'll make "eyes" at him, but she usually draws the line at actual speaking. Thanks for the invite Mom!!