On Saturday on my first trip to Seattle, we headed down to Vancouver. We were supposed to have left on Friday night, but then we got lazy and decided there's no point in going so late, so the plan was to go on Saturday morning. Morning soon turned too noon and we didn't leave until 11:30pm. Totally not accounting for the traffic on the road, we didn't get to Vancouver until 2:30! The whole way there, i was whining about how the aquarium is going to close and we were going to miss it (In case anyone is wondering, there was no line at the border and customs was very sweet). That's me at Stanley Park on the right.We got to Stanley Park at around 3pm and took a tour of the aquarium....was totally not disappointed. I love aquariums, I totally wish I snuck to the Baltimore aquarium when I was right next to it. Regret of my life!
Anyway, the aquarium closed at 5pm and we got there at 3 so we had two hours to go around, which was sufficient for a good quick tour. We were just on time for the beluga show, but it wasn't that interesting. We skipped the dolphin show. I'm such a bore.
There were a lot of interesting marine life going on in the aquarium but the best one by far, unanimous vote between me and adam, is the jellyfish!!!! We got to see the entire life cyle and everything. Here are some of the images. Reserving the rest for facebook :P
Here's a picture of me standing in the middle of a tank. I fought for that spot with a 5 year old girl. The little tour around the tank gave me muscle pains since i couldnt stand upright and there was nothing in that tank. Served me right!
After the aquarium closed, we were gonna walk around Stanley Park for 2 hours, but as usual, our perception of time never hits dead on: we walked for 20 minutes instead of 2 hours. Our excuse was that we were afraid to venture too far because we were not in the right gear and we didnt want to get lost, but really, we all know it's the lazy factor.We headed for Ben and Yvonne's in the evening to drop off our stuff and we all went out for dinner. The place Adam wanted to go was walking distance, but they told us no seats until 9pm. We ended up finding a random rotating sushi place and had some beer (well and a bit of sushi). Ben gave us a quick tour of downtown vancouver after dinner and we headed back to his place for some cranium and margarita! I found out that night that i can no longer drink tequila without reverting back to the state i was in at fed in sept.
I shall take this opportunity to thank Ben and Yvonne for their hospitality...Ben's the good looking guy in the pic. The not good looking guy is Adam.
And after a nice brunch at Milestone's, Adam and I headed back to Seattle. The Customs dude was really sweet too!
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5 comments:
blasphemy! who is this not good looking adam you speak of?
i've never heard of a not good looking adam in my life!
Now you got me thinking if I've been in the aquarium, your pictures look so different, makes it seem like I was at a different place. Either that or I just looked at the outside and didn't go in, but I swear I did. I don't remember no dolphin...
Oh well, ooo...life cycle of a jelly fish, never really thought about that...how do jelly fish have sex.
Damn, the wonders of the world.
Trip looked like fun...I want to go to Vancouver =(
20 minutes of Stanley Park is sufficient anyways, you do not need 2 hours. 2 hours, I walked all around Stanley Park, but I did that by accident. lol.
In order for a jellyfish to be conceived, male jellyfish release sperm into the water. The sperm swims into the mouth of a female. From there, the sperm fertilize the eggs and eventually form an embryo - just like any typical process of reproduction.
After conception, there are five basic stages in the life cycle of a jellyfish.
1. A jellyfish embryo doesn't turn into a baby jellyfish; instead, it becomes what's called a planula. A planula can swim, but not as gracefully as a jellyfish. It uses tiny cilia (hair-like extensions from it's body) to propel itself to the ocean floor, where it will attach itself to a hard, immobile object.
2. Once it's attached to a rock, shell, or other solid object, it begins to transform into a polyp. Polyps can survive for several years by catching and eating tiny sea creatures. These little polyps become capable of asexual reproduction - what that means is that growths from the walls of the polyp's body form and split off - and they've got all the makings to be their own separate polyp; this process is called budding.
3. As it grows, grooves in the polyp's body start to develop. When this happens, the polyp looks like a stack of discs on top of one another. Eventually, the grooves get so deep that they actually separate the body - and each piece is finally a baby jellyfish!
4. Baby jellyfish move through adolescence and become adults, just like every living creature does. As adults, they are capable of sexual reproduction and free to create tiny planula of their own.
Everyone i talked to said they liked the aquarium! It's inside stanley park and the student ticket is $15/person!
That sounds crazy. Its like it can become something else that can asexually reproduce like a totally different animal, then a jelly fish.
Interesting.
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