Foggy, Cold Visit to the Blue Reef Aquarium

This is Science Week for local schools (I sure hope they do science every other week of the year...LOL) so I had to stop by a charity shop for a white button down men's shirt, a.k.a. Merrit's lab coat for the week. Yesterday they asked if I could send him in with one.

Uh, no. We don't have any clothes that we don't need and wear since we only have about five outfits each until our stuff gets here. So, I dropped Merrit off at school at 9:00; Ollie and I were waiting outside the charity shop when they opened at 9:30. Men's shirt. Three pounds. Done. We walked it down to the school and left it at the front desk for Merrit.

First educational hurdle of the day, hurdled. 

The next educational hurdle: Find the bus to Tynemouth. Get on it. Go to the aquarium.

Easier said than done. Ollie and I stood in the foggy, cold weather for at least a half an hour before I realized we were at the wrong bus stop. By this time, I was holding him (biceps burning) and he'd fallen asleep.

I was talking to this sweet couple in their 70s (I would have sworn they were in their 50s); they were self-proclaimed Geordies (locals, with a very strong accent that I sometimes can't understand at all) and they were so friendly and funny. He said, "We met here in Whitley Bay. Isn't that right, dear?" [She nods and smiles, knowing the punchline] He goes on, "She was a nurse at the insane asylum and I was an inmate." And they both laugh like it's the first time he's told the joke.

The Geordie couple pointed me to the right bus stop. And finally we were on a heated bus on our way to Tynemouth and the aquarium.

The aquarium is on the sea front just above the cliffs that lead down to Longsands Beach, the most popular place to surf around here. It was so foggy, it would blow your mind if I tried to tell you. And cold. The max temp for today is 6 degrees C (or about 42 degrees F). From the bus stop, I could hardly see the aquarium across the street. 

We walked over, I pulled out my credit card to pay the admission. Uh oh, third educational hurdle of the day. They don't take swipe cards.

Tangent: All cards here are what they call chip-and-PIN. We don't have this in the US, at least not as far as I know. It's supposedly more secure because you have to use a PIN instead of a signature to complete your purchase, but our cards don't have chips and don't work that way. What I'm getting at is that not all merchants have a card reader that can even read swipe cards. Ah, and the aquarium is one of them. I didn't have enough cash on me for the admission. No ATM nearby. 

I was like, "We ARE going to the aquarium today. I did NOT stand in the fog and cold for half an hour waiting for a bus to turn back now." As I stood there weighing my options, the teenage girl behind the counter says in her lilting accent, "Ahhh, just go in...Shhhh!" and shooed us through the door.

Yes!

The aquarium was great. Not too big, which I'm always thankful for when you have a kid under age five. Sometimes the big museums are just too much for the littler ones to take in.

We saw lots of great fish. The lobster, crab, and crayfish tank was probably my favorite. (Okay, they're not fish, they're crustaceans. And they're delicious.) Ollie liked the vivid blue-and-yellow and "Nemo" fish in the tropical tank best. There was someone vacuuming out the rocks in that tank, and that was interesting to watch, too.

And now I know why the River Otter exhibits are usually outdoors. Oh my gosh, they are so smelly! Cute, but smelly. The sign on the wall read:

We Hope You Don't Find the River Otters' Musk Offensive
Territorial Marking Is Natural Otter Behavior

Outside now into the fresh air (cold!) to see the seals. We happened to catch the 12:00 feeding and exercise exhibition. The seals shimmied through hula hoops, popped out of the water to wave, jumped up to touch balls with their noses--all for fish that they greedily snapped up and swallowed whole. They were really beautiful, and seemed happy as clams (get it? we're at the aquarium? okay, that was a groaner) to be outside in the freezing cold water.

We ate lunch in the cafe. With no other food options nearby, I feared the worst...microwaved, processed junk food that costs an arm and a leg...but was pleasantly surprised when two bowls of homemade carrot and coriander soup and crusty rolls set us back by only 5 pounds.

Back to the cold, foggy bus stop. As we waited, we listened to the surf (though we couldn't see the water below) and the fog horns in the distance. 

We've been home over an hour but I still can't feel my toes. It's been this cold before, but not as damp. It's 99.7% humidity, according to the BBC Weather website. Just about the time I warm up, it'll be time to go pick up my little scientist from school.