To the Aquarium

Each month the Americorp and YAV members of Project Homecoming get the privilege of exploring the city. This month we got to go to the Aubudon Aquarium of the Americas! I personally love aquariums and since the day was cold and rainy, it was perfect to be inside and learn about the wonderful aquatic life under the sea. Although I have been to a few aquariums before, I always seem to get that little kid feeling whenever I go. Inside my head is like "Oh my gosh! Look at that!" and "That fish is huge!" and "I need to see everything in this aquarium!"

Valentina and Alex looking as excited as I feel.

These special type of jellyfish lay on the ocean floor with their tentacles in the air. They look as though they are dead or playing dead...but the sign next to the tank assured us that they are full of life!

Who doesn't love penguins? This one penguin swam in circles right up against the glass enjoying all the observers.

The coolest part of the day though was seeing the Sea Otter exhibit where we were just in time to see a feeding. The woman feeding the otters had a microphone and told us some history about the two otters they had - Buck and Emma - and some interesting facts about otters in general. Here are the facts that I can recall:

• Sea otters eat 5 times a day, about 8 lbs in total because they have such a high metabolism. 
• They eat shell fish and each feeding ends with a blue crab.
• They live for 10-12 years in the wild and up to 20 in captivity.
• One square inch of their skin has the same amount of hair that the average human does on their entire head.
• Both of the sea otters at the aquarium were abandoned by their mother and never learned how to hunt in the wild. They were rescued by the aquarium.
• The Audubon Aquarium has one female and one male otter named Emma and Buck respectively.

How cute are their little paws?

Some other cool exhibits that I saw included seahorses, glow jellyfish and fish that I got up close and personal with. The aquarium was unfortunately under some construction so we weren't able to through the Caribbean Tunnel which is one of those glass tunnels that you can walk through and see aquatic life from all angles. But regardless, we got to see some pretty cool stuff and the best part? It was free!

The detail on some of these fish is incredible - this one was one of my favorites.

I LOVE seahorses. I also especially love that they curl their tails around coral when they want to rest.

Just me inside a fish tank, chilling with some fish.

I really love that I get to experience a new aspect of the city every month. I am officially half way done with my YAV year and time (as always) is going faster than I could have ever expected. I really love this city a lot and it is reinforced through all that I do here. I am definitely going to miss it when I leave and I want to be able to look back and say that I did it all. 

Lesson from the Journey: When it gets really cold in New Orleans they put all the animals in the zoo in their nighttime cages making our original plans to go to the zoo not worthwhile. So that is how we ended up at the aquarium! But Alex, Valentina and I took an awesome picture in front of the zoo which I can't not share - so here it is:

I haven't been inside the zoo but I've been in front of it!