Saturday, December 25, 2010

Now, an otter

There were two otters in Newport, both parents to a baby otter that we weren't quite lucky enough to meet. I think this was the girl otter, because the other one was huge. She was fun, and when we walked back and forth, she followed us.

Since you can't quite capture the cuteness of otters in photos, I thought I'd take video of the otter following John. You can't see John, but he's the reason the otter keeps swimming back and forth -- too cute!

Newport Aquarium

We were greeted by this awesome fish made completely out of plastics and other trash found on the beach. It's part of a program on display there called Washed Ashore, which features art made out of trash all through the aquarium. It was super cool, including a giant jellyfish made completely out of clear plastic, teaching people about how much trash we leave behind.


I could have stood here for hours, just watching the sharks smoothly glide through the water. So mesmerizing.



These guys felt like showing off in the shark tank. Cool to see their undersides!


More from Washed Ashore. Cute big turtle!


The best part of the aquarium -- sea otters. So remember river otters at the zoo? These things are about 10 times bigger. One of them weighed about 70 pounds! This guy was playing with us. Video pending in a separate post of the otter following John back and forth. He stopped playing every time someone else walked up, then swam right back to play with us. Adorable.


Sand dollars in their alive state. Did you have any idea they were deep purple and fuzzy?


Awesome jelly fish are fun to watch.


This. Is. A. Starfish. Do you believe me?


Scary sea nettles.


It was sooo much fun. They also had sea lions being silly, an anaconda (one of the scariest things I've seen in awhile) and tons of other things that I couldn't possibly post all the photos of -- it would have been the longest post ever! I'll try to post the otter video soon, then my photos from Sunday -- a trip to South Beach and the Heceta Head lighthouse.