Series: Texas Travelogue '08

Day 3: Monday, March 10th

We spent most of Monday of our first week at the Dallas World Aquarium in downtown Dallas. However, I have little photographic evidence of said trip, as Yours Truly forgot to charge both camera batteries and thus the above snap constitutes the lion’s share of my photographic output for the day.
In any event, it’s a bit difficult to describe the DWA as an “aquarium”, as it houses a menagerie of animals that would be far more suited to the “zoo” appellation. There were tropical birds of all shapes and colors, monkeys, tamarins, flamingos, a leopard, South African penguins, snakes, vampire bats, even a shark tank — the list goes on. Needless to say, Will was ecstatic about the whole affair, particularly the giant river otter and the sharks.
A word about the penguins, if I may: they are dirty, filthy animals and I hope their mothers are properly disgusted at their behavior. Apparently, they aren’t the biggest fans of spectators, so the majority of the flock(?) hid under the concrete walkway surrounding their enclosure, while two of the braver souls defiantly stood erect on the island in the center of the pen, “voiding their penguin colons”, shall we say. If you have never smelled South African penguin poop, you’ve not yet lived, I assure you. Please also note that we visited the gift shop earlier in our excursion, at which time my father-in-law bought Will a stuffed S.A. penguin doll. Those of you with young children will no doubt have already made the logical jump that Will made, connecting the real life penguins with the doll, namely: he now calls the doll “Poopy Penguin” and giggles nigh-uncontrollably whenever the subject comes up. Ahh, the souvenirs we now carry…
After an entertaining morning at the aquarium, we headed back to my in-laws for a relatively mild afternoon. If I recall correctly, we sat down and watched Evan Almighty, a movie my wife and I had not seen. Short review: cute, family-friendly, love Morgan Freeman’s portrayal of God, more plot holes and less character development than an episode of Dragon Ball Z. This viewing was followed by a trip to the salon where my sister-in-law works for haircuts for both my wife and son.
My wife and I ate at the South Greenville Gloria’s with my sister-in-law and her boyfriend that evening and enjoyed the experience immensely. I of course took the opportunity to avail myself of a couple of Shiner Bocks, as I’m always up for the local TX beer of choice.

Day 4: Tuesday, March 11th

I have no photos from that Tuesday, nor do I remember anything particularly eventful, so nothing of any significance must’ve happened, or I’d remember it, right? And even if something did happen, I don’t have the pictures to prove it. *grin*