Underwater Zen Garden. With Sharks.

So, the whole Chicago trip turned out much different than planned. It was suppose to be 2 different fangirls, Sis' college roommate and then hiyacynth and her family. But one fangirl had classes and the other had a family emergency and College Roommate had to go out of town at the last minute - and though we missed seeing her, that worked out well because it was soon enough to cancel the hotel and stay at her handicap accessible apartment instead, saving me some serious cash. It ended up just hiyacynth, Geek Husband and Munchy P - (who is 3 ½ now, wtf?!) So we left a little later than planned on Friday, got there, settled in, had Hiyacynth and Fam over for dinner and then sat around watching Harry Potter because we couldn’t make the very outdated Tivo work!

On Saturday, we grabbed breakfast at the diner down the street and then we went to the aquarium, where I have never been before. Hiyacynth and Munchy P joined us there. We did everything! My sister and I went through the entire place. Munchy got tired after a couple hours and they went home and The BFF went to one of the viewing areas and sat for a long while, but my sister and I kept going. There was SO much to see and I honestly could have stayed there all day. My sister was obsessed with the jellyfish and they were very cool - trippy as hell, but super cool. There were ones as small as a contact lens. And translucent ones that had a light that rotated colors in the tank, so they changed colors with the light. The seahorses - I have never seen before and they were so tiny. But they looked exactly like all the picture books I had as a kid. And the sea-dragons were even cooler. (I told Munchy those were dragons in there and he laughed and laughed at me. Auntie is so silly!). And then I got to pet a sturgeon - there was a tank you could stick your hand right inside. And we saw the otters play - (I want one!) - and the Belugas and we went and saw the dolphin show, which was adorable.

But the best part was the tank area where you went underground and the fish were on either side of you and also you could see them overhead in places too. And it should have been claustrophobic, with all those people down there and everyone talking and squeezing up to see along the glass - (this is where the sharks were as well!) - but it wasn’t. I tuned out all the human noise and just stared at the blue water lapping back and forth and watched the fish and sharks swim, like gliding, like flying, through the water, and only let in the sound of the water and the smell of it all and it was so zen and peaceful. I could have stayed there, right there, watching the blue, blue water, all day.

We went home early in the morning and - though it didn’t end up like we had planned and it will sadly be a long while before I get a chance to go back and catch up with the friends I missed - it did end up being a really nice, relaxing, pretty perfect weekend.