Fish & Birds in the Morning, and Fish & Bird in the Evening

Wanted Posters in Boston
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Boston in the Rain
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Raining today, so we headed out to the New England Aquarium .  We had been toying with the idea of heading out to the Boston Harbor Islands (another NPS site), but this is not an appealing junket in the rain. 

Did I mention they have penguins?

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We took the T in--Boston's version of a subway.  This is VERY easy to use and very convenient.  Stop about two blocks from the B&B.  I have included an intriguing advertisement from the subway wall--a wanted poster for a beetle.  (Dad:  have they thought of this for BART and the Little Brown Apple Moth????). 

This aquarium is WAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY better than the Key West Aquarium.  It costs less than double and is worth about 10x as much.  The centerpiece to the New England Aquarium is penguins.  I love penguins.  Any aquarium with penguins is all right with me.   They have 81, mostly African penguins, but a few Southern Rock Hopper penguins thrown in for good measure.  They are all EXTREMELY cute.  Eighty one penguins might be the most I ever saw in one place!

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The aquarium is organized around the penguin exhibit, which fills up most of the bottom floor (the part not taken up by the gift shop!), and then a spiral walk around the GOT (Giant Ocean Tank) which has Sea Turtles, Sharks, Rays and the like. 

We spent about two and a half hours and attended presentations on the seals (a training demonstration), the penguins (a conservation talk), and the GOT (general info about the animals that live there.  The Green Sea Turtle, Myrtle, is 80 years old.  The sharks do not bite the handlers, but the little Grey Angelfish do—they think the divers’ hair is seaweed and pull it out by the roots.  Ouch!)  The big fish in the tank do not eat the little fish in the tank, primarily because they get offered food (mostly squid) twice a day, which is a good deal more often than they would eat in the wild.  Once in awhile though, there is a little disappearance or two....

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We also saw Fur Seals, of which, I gather, there are only about 15 on exhibit in the country, six of them here.

There’s a great display of jellies, and a fabulous display of Australian Seadragons that look like seaweed.  Tim bought me a new digital camera for an anniversary present (my old one was giving up the ghost after 7 or 8 years—the shutter won't open and close properly any more, and the focus seems to be starting to lose it--and the primary difference is an amazing zoom.  It also handles low light very well.  I got some great photos.

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I definitely recommend the aquarium if you are in the area.  Did I mention they have penguins?

We’re going to finish the trip with a nice dinner at a highly recommended Italian restaurant tonight, then tomorrow we head back on the long drive home.  We are scheming of ways to stay off of I-95 as much as humanly possible!

Addendum:  the dinner was FANTASTIC.  By chance, we chose a "Restaurant Week" restaurant, La Morra, and so we got an incredible meal for a good deal less than we would have on any other week.  I had some truly outstanding rice balls--fried risotto with braised beef and smoked mozzarella, a delicacy I was first introduced to at Filomena in Georgetown, and for which I have returned to Filomena more than once.  But move over Philomena--your rice balls have been surpassed.  (Too bad Brookline is WAY further from home than Georgetown!) 

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Tim had a carrot salad (way fancier than that sounds), while I had a roasted Romaine salad.  My salad was the only sour note on the night--there was just way too much dressing.  I have to learn to ask for it on the side.  We both had a pasta dish with roasted tomatoes, garlic, and chili pepper; amazingly, they got the pepper EXACTLY right.  Just enough to taste it and give you a little tingle, and not enough to make you demand more bread and water.  For the main course, I had a Cornish Hen "Under a Brick"--which means squashed flat.  I don't know what the advantage was to the brick but the bird was outstanding.  Tim had a bluefish in some sort of green sauce; it was also excellent.  There was also dessert, but I settled for fresh fruit, being by that time just about full.  Tim had peach tarte of which he approved completely.  Portions were appropriate all around--not the overly massive things that you really can't eat.

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This was not an inexpensive meal, even at restaurant week prices, but it was completely worth it.  If I lived in the area, I would certainly go back there for a special occasion and pay their regular prices (though I would probably order fewer courses!).  La Morra gave us our best meal of the week, and provided a fitting way to end the trip!