Making Valentine Memories

A couple years ago, Hubby surprised me with the best Valentine's gift I ever got. He took me to the Aquarium in Boston to see the penguins. I've always loved penguins. Even before they were popular. I have a beanie baby penguin that someone gave me before Beanie Babies were popular. And of course, Hubby knows of my love for penguins. This year, we decided to recreate our trip. Hubby likes taking the train, so we took the train from Haverhill into Boston....about an hour's ride. Taking the train is very serene. No worrying about traffic, no worrying about parking. We got off at North Station and walked to the Aquarium from there. I was stunned when we got there to see a line from inside a giant tent that was placed in front of the aquarium snaking all the way down the block! We approached an Aquarium worker who was patrolling the line and asked her if something special was going on. She said, "It's the beginning of school vacation week." I knew school vacation was starting in Massachusetts, but I never dreamed every single person in Massachusetts would choose this day to go to the Aquarium. For some reason, I asked if we could go directly inside if we had library passes. Thank God I did.....she said, "Yes, just go in the tent and to the left." If we'd had to stand in that line our visit would have been all shot to hell. Because I wouldn't have been able to do it. I would have freaked out. Literally. Ask Hubby. We followed her instructions....past the people standing outside and past the long back-and-forth line inside the tent. (It looked like the lines at Disney World). We got inside the museum in about ten minutes.....and there they were. My penguins.

The nice thing about going to the Aquarium without children is that you can stand in one spot forever and watch the penguins without a little person tugging on your coat saying, "Can we go see something else?" We watched the penguins for a long time.

The Aquarium in Boston is renowned for its giant seawater tank rising up from the middle of the floor. We went all the way up to look over the top. A giant sea turtle came up to greet us.

All around the edges of the giant tank are displays of every kind of fish and sea creature you can imagine. I thought these jelly fish were unbelievably beautiful. Hubby likened them to watching a lava lamp as they pulsed and floated around in the tank. I caught the reflection of a little girl mesmerized by the action of the jelly fish.

Hubby's favorite fish is the sea dragons. The one below is hard to see....it's right above the red things and looks like part of the foliage. He looks like a swimming plant.

The other sea dragon is right in the middle of the picture....he has tiny cilia on his back that look like a tiny propeller spinning around.

You can go outside the aquarium to see the otters. They put up a new sculpture of a sea otter. Hubby and I were brave enough to stand outside without coats to pose for this picture.

Back inside.....See if you can see Hubby on the right side of the picture puckering up for a kiss from the lion fish.

We were just about ready to head out when we noticed the penguins were being fed. Always a treat to watch. This group was so enthusiastic they kept leaning too close and falling in the water!

We topped off our day by walking over to Quincy Marketplace for some dinner. Someone had put a huge ice sculpture of a heart in the middle of the Market and was taking pictures for a price. We stood on the backside of the sculpture and asked someone to take our picture for free.

We had some dinner at Durgin Park in Quincy Market. The seafood in Boston is unbelievable. We headed back on the train......tired but so satisfied with our special Valentine's Day.