Today during lunch, I went down to The Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy. They are building a huge one in Salt Lake at the Gateway, but it won’t be ready for two more years, I think. In the meantime they have a “preview” exhibit, which is basically this really tiny display of a few things. There’s still some cool stuff there, and I bought an annual membership for myself when I went.
I love aquariums, too. They are my favorite attraction to visit. I have a stuffed moray eel from one I went to in Tennessee. The one in Sandy is fun, even though its a little small. I didn’t have much time to look around, but I saw some cool stuff. In one tank they had a giant octopus which was really cool to see. They also had this tank of some beautiful sea anemones, and another of a huge lobster which must have been at least a foot and a half long.
Perhaps the coolest part though was that there is also a touchpool there, with a bunch of sting rays swimming around. You can stick your hand in there and pet them if you like. There was one that was really friendly, and kept swimming up to the side and would actually stick the front of his head out of the water and just flap his sides and kind of bob up and down. It was really funny seeing them so playful.
The thing that really gets to me is just how beautiful these animals are, though. It really gets me thinking about how God designed all these plants and animals not only for our use, but for our enjoyment as well.
I didn’t have as much time as I wanted to poke around all I could, but on my way out I saw they had a little gift shop and a theater showing some videos as well. Which reminds me of a great DVD I have, called Into the Deep. It’s an IMAX movie which I got to see on the big screen a long time ago. If you ever get a chance to see it, don’t miss out. Great stuff.
I’m all about field trips at lunch. Imagine how if you visited one new place during every lunch hour, after one year you would have visited 365 places. I tell you what. I’m goin’ to an aquarium for lunch now too!