Turtles, Fish and More!

My granddaughter Ada just turned 19. And because our entire family is made up of animal fanatics, we spent the day at the Albuquerque biopark and aquarium. Of course!

Exploring this place was like opening a present, or peeling an onion. The longer we stayed, the more we discovered, and the happier we became. I can’t believe it took us 6 years of living in New Mexico to finally make a family trip there!

The aquarium was delightful, from viewing native critters like turtles, river otter and native fish, to marveling at exotic (to us) fish that we never dreamed existed. I’ve been snorkeling in the Caribbean before, but never saw anything like these 2 wonderfully funny-faced individuals!

Beautiful Birthday Girl Meets Beautiful Fish

I love this photograph of Ada peacefully communing with her new friend. She is such a gentle soul, and I think this captures her love of animals perfectly. It makes me wish I were a painter.

Petting Stingrays…

Granddaughter Annabelle got a few pets in with the stingray pond. This ray seemed to love the attention!  

Grammy Merry and Jellyfish

Me? I loved the entire experience, but especially enjoyed sharing some quiet time with the jellyfish on display.

After leaving the aquarium, we headed for the extensive, lovely park with oh-so-much neon-green grass. I had to take off my sandals and experience walking on ground not made up of clay, rocks and the occasional cactus. Which is what the ground on my property mostly is.

Next…Bugariums!

That’s right, the biopark hosts not one, but 2 bugariums. The first one was mostly native butterflies, but the second one…exotic insects and arachnids from around the world.

Now you’re talking my language. Didn’t know I loved insects and spiders? My relationship with the insect world goes back to my childhood in Ohio, when I kept them as pets, made my own bug displays, and generally interacted every summer with every bug, arachnid or worm I could find.

I was especially impressed with these giant guys, Goliath beetles, which measured about 3” long. And so pretty! That’s my son (David) photographing them.

The younger kids (Grandson Cassidy and granddaughter Annabelle) crawled on the floor and popped up in this bubble so they could see eye to eye with a huge number of hissing cockroaches, which are native to Madagascar. That, incidentally is one of the countries on my bucket list.

It was a super fun day. Maybe I’ll go back on MY birthday! It would be the best present ever.

Your animal loving artist,

Merry

P.S. come over to The Magic Zoo and check out some of my new designs! I’ve been a busy girl this year…