The Not-So-Secret Diary of Debbie Stapert: San Diego Day 2: Birch Aquarium

Yesterday it was raining on and off all day. We were going to go to the village to see Ruby, a bird that previously sat on dad's shoulder, but we didn't want to get caught in the rain without any gear. We ended up at P.F. Changs to have lunch with Malia. I got the dim sum lunch, which was so good! Malia suggested we head up to the Birch Aquarium in La Jolla (la hoya) to be safe from the rain. Before we did anything else I had to sign in for the convention. At the sign in I got a really cool bag made by women in India who are making these bags to stay off the streets and away from prostituting themselves. The bags are made from recycled banners and not one of them is like any other bag. Some of the bags had words on them in multiple languages, and there was one that even had french fries on it! I chose one that was just a bunch of really bright colors. After signing in at the convention headquarters, we decided to go to the aquarium. Of course, we got lost on the way there even though we were so close. Eventually we made it there and had a lot of fun with James. He was intrigued by the fish in the tanks, especially the big and the colorful ones. He even got to see sharks! It's a small aquarium, not much bigger than the fish exhibits at John Ball Park Zoo, but it was perfect for James. The one thing I wasn't a huge fan of at the aquarium was the global warming part. It portrayed it as fact, rather than theory, and even had a running counter on CO2 emissions since whenever. It was some huge, ridiculous number, which is probably true, but it didn't say how much of the CO2 that has been emitted gets taken in by plant life and changed into O2 for us to breathe. If they had done that and then presented another number of CO2 emissions that are still hanging around in the air, I probably would have found the information useful. Anyway, the day was pretty good and James had a lot of fun (Lola always makes him laugh). The view from the aquarium looking out to the ocean was gorgeous. And to top off the day, the Tigers WON!