Penguins and Pajamas

So, it's been a long time. Too long, really, because a lot has happened since my last post. No kidding, seriously, a lot. I lost my first tooth, graduated from kindergarden, turned six years old, and spent the night with penguins!!

On May 19th, my Dad and I spent the night in the California Academy of Science during an activity called Penguins and Pajamas. It was totally cool. The Academy has loads of really awesome stuff like a planetarium, a real live rainforest (my favorite), sharks and rays, a huge aquarium, an albino aligator, and black footed African penguins.

Anybody who knows me, knows there is no animal on the planet I love more than the penguin. So the opportunity to sleep with these cool flightless birds was too good to pass up. Thanks, Mama, for making this seriously cool sleepover happen. You rock as always. I'm blowing you a hug-kiss right now.

Right. Back to the Academy. Best of the exhibits, at least for me, was the rainforest. After walking through a series of secret-base like security doors, we entered a glass sphere that was like walking right into a real live rainforest. As soon as the door closed behind us and we slipped through the black strips of rubber hanging from the door frame, the heat and humidity hit you like a warm wet towel. The whole place smelled alive. Butterflies of all kinds drifted around the three levels of actual jungle plantlife. Bright-colored tropical birds zipped back and forth across the dome, chasing each other through the trees. And right in the middle of it all, was a deep lagoon filled with real rainforesty-looking fish, huge, slow fish. Well, here, why don't I just show you. Check this out:

I tell you. If we weren't sleeping with the penguins this night, I would have fought valiantly to spend the night here. I don't know if we would have made it out alive, but it looked like the really nasty stuff that lives in the rainforest was behind glass and marked "Absolutely No Photographs" or something like that. Anyway, this was my favorite exhibit, although I'm excited to see the new Earthquake exhibit opening soon. It will have ostriches!

We checked out the other exhibits (I think Dad liked the Isands of Evolution exhibit, kept talking about how he'd lived in Ecuador which was really close to this place called Galapagos and has lots of really big turtles, bless his giant heart) and then settled into our sleeping area...

Yes, those are lions not 12 feet away. I slept crazy good and in the morning, we had a relatively scrumptous breakfast just outside the rainforest.

It was a great time. Can't wait for next year. Oh, and look what we got to see on the way out the next morning...

Yes, that's a T-Rex. He was seriously huge and wicked cool!! So, I'm back. I know it's been a long long time, but get ready for more Hunter, maybe even some more Cole on my brother's blog, and perhaps something new...

I'll be back.