Octopus's Garden

Yesterday was RedFaery and my first 2nd anniversary. For those that can't follow that illogical statement, we were married twice - once on April 29th, 2006 (for the purposes of getting RedFaery on my insurance), and once on September 17th that same year (for all the pomp, circumstance and free toaster ovens). So we celebrate twice a year as well - in April just for ourselves, and in September for all the well-wishes, cards and free toaster ovens.

As I sat at the computer checking e-mail that morning, I wondered what we could do to make it interesting. I remembered that I'd just gotten my annual renewing of vacation time at work, so I decided to take the day off. With all her health scares lately, she really needed a day of my complete attention that was completely unplanned. After confirming with her that she's like that, and confirming with work that I wasn't needed, the day was ours! Then out of the blue, I said, "Want to go to the Aquarium?"

The Newport Aquarium near Cincinnati is someplace I'd been telling RedFaery that she needed to see sometime, since she enjoys aquariums and had never been. Plus it was indoors, and we weren't going to be able to do much outside anyway due to it being chilly. The only real concern was whether she would have the energy to walk a lot, but she was game to try.

After an early lunch, we drove the 2 hours to Newport, spending an extra few minutes on a wrong turn into Ohio and back again. It was the perfect day to go - virtually no kids, very small crowd (mostly a company doing a team building exercise with it's employees), and no pressures. We walked at a leisurely pace, spending more time in favorite sections.

Newport is one of those aquariums with the acrylic glass tunnels, where the fish swam all around you and give you the illusion of being underwater. More than once a manta ray startled RedFaery by swimming next to her, much to my amusement. I was even at my punny worst when looking at an eel, singing in Italian:
"When it's long, and it's green,
And it looks really mean -
That's a moray!"

We found out that sharks eat better than us (lobster three times a week!). We watched otters get into a fistfight over food. We enjoyed the penguin jumping contest. We avoided the horseshoe crab and baby shark petting area as a team. Great fun!

A couple of hours of walking was all she could manage for the day, so we headed back home. Ended our evening at Ramsi's cafe, where RedFaery tried something new (something she rarely does). She had the Moosa Kan, which is basically chicken that marinated in a berry that turned it purple, with lemon and pepper seasoning. I decided to forego my favorite Majestic Seabass to try BBQ mango salmon patties - a tasty change.

Then we splurged on Frosties from Wendy's and watched CSI. High class all the way!