Seal-licks

Part of our trip to the aquarium included feeding the seals. It was a cold and rainy day (think, spring break on the Oregon coast) and the wind was whipping into the front part of the aquarium like a kid racing to be first in line. This first picture shows Gillian and Abby waiting in line to get the seal food... it is unclear whether the faces are due to the cold wind, or the look and smell of the seal food...

(seal food up close and personal)

I think that Abigail didn't really appreciate the seal food as much as the seals did.


Gillian didn't seem to mind the fish guts....





Steven surprised us all by being totally grossed out by the chunks of dead fish and refused to feed the seals unless he could use paper towels to pick up the tasty treats.... but Mom was afraid that the first try would launch a paper towel along with the fish and we didn't want any seals with paper-towel-tummy-ache... so I forced him to use his hands (mean Mommy, yeah, I know). Here he is pictured as he first attempts to touch the fish with his BARE HANDS! (after recovering from the initial shock, he went back for three more baskets of fish)






Grandmas are terribly useful when you go on vacation... especially when they give you money to buy more seal food!!!

Hooray for Grandma moneybags! (wink, grin) Actually she told me that she had saved up all her pocket change so the kids could use the quarters to buy seal-food... but upon arrival we discovered that the prices had increased from 25 cents to $1 per basket (or her memory had failed?). I guess the seals are getting impacted by the current economic crisis too!


There was one particular seal who would put on a "show" in order to get the kids' attention, thereby cornering the fish market. He laid on his side and flapped his flipper against his tummy in a loud clapping/slapping noise... and if that wasn't enough he would bark as if to say, "hey! look over here at this cool trick I am doing!"

It was hard for the kids to know which seal to throw food at - but I imagine that everyone got their fare share in the end.