Trixie the Whale Shark

Sometimes in the line of work, you get to do cool, unexpected things.  This morning and afternoon, we went down to the Georgia Aquarium, to review the logistics for the upcoming Summer Xtreme trip.  The end result was a simple request:  can we see them feed the whale sharks?  And it never hurts to ask, especially when we're purchasing quite a few tickets.  Because the very kind man there allowed the five of us visiting to go up and above the water line, above the huge tank, all while the four whale sharks there were being fed.  The inflatable rafts you see there follow ropes across the huge expanse of water, moving back and forth across the surface while using that large spoon to dump out krill (or whatever the food is) as the raft and whale shark move along.   

It was just neat because it was something we hadn't seen before, or at least a viewpoint we hadn't see before.  We saw some other new areas, but it was actually somewhat of a business trip, so we sort of went through the logistics of having so many kids there, and what time to do this or that.  It's going to be fun!

We saw the beluga whales for a while too.  In fact, the man there let us film a segment for Summer Xtreme, right there in front of the beluga tank.  This is the angle from an area on the other side of the aquarium.  That is to say, it's a viewpoint that is quite different than the usual one we see going through.  We filmed in front of that, and I'm not sure how it will come out.  But it was fun, and if you look at Daddy above, you can see we got some t-shirts too.  Oh, and penguin poop.  Okay, it's obviously not real penguin poop - it's chocolate-covered peanuts for sale, labeled as penguin poop.  But we had fun with that.  Madison will love the trip, and maybe even the penguin poop!

Daddy got home just in time to take Madison off to piano class, the last one in her career with Mrs. Pam.  At least until further notice.  Further lessons are more one-on-one, and less classroom driven.  It was another goodbye, this time to the boys and girl of the post-graduate class.  They did really well this year, as evidenced by Madison's performance - and all the others.

They were going to do something outside afterwards, but the rain finally caught up with us.  It's raining hard outside, even now.  It was a nice and sunny day, but just as predicted, it was a tropical day, where the passing showers accumulated and got us all pretty good.  This morning was clear though, and Madison went off to school to spend her last Tuesday at Chestatee Elementary.  It was "twin" day, where some of the students were dressing up like one another.  Madison wore purple, as did her friend.  They were learning about CPR and the Heimlich maneuver, and they were learning these things yesterday as well.  All of this is really useful information.  They were also watching movies, presumably while teachers were catching up and wrapping up with all the grading and upkeep of the class.  They're almost done with that too, another chapter ending as well.  So many chapters ending this week.

Anyway, we read tonight, and said our prayers.  Thunder is rumbling, rain is pouring - and votes are being cast.  We voted earlier, and we'll see who came out on top with these primaries.  So many candidates this time, and it seems inevitable that we're going back again to the ballot to vote in run-off elections.  And then the real deal way on down the road in November.  But we're not counting votes tonight - we're counting sheep!