Taco – Page 40

Exploring a New Zoo

October 23, 2014 by Taco

So I like animals, that should sort have been fairly obvious by now. By extension I also like seeing animals, and when you live in a city one of the best places to see animals is a zoo. Its no secret that my all time favorite zoo so far is the Columbian Park Zoo. In fact I wrote pretty much an entire post about it. Columbian Park Zoo is not big, nor do they have a wide variety of animals, but there is just something special about it.

Boston has a zoo as well, the Franklin Park Zoo. However, like most things in Boston, its a little bit too steep for SB and I to afford (looking at you New England Aquarium). This time around I couldn’t cabbage onto some free tickets, but our tickets came from another source. Knowing our love of animals, MIL and FIL purchased our tickets for us. Pretty cool. It took us a bit to get out there, but I’m definitely happy that they purchased the tickets for us and that we went.

My overall opinions on the zoo were a bit mixed, but I’m going to walk you through our adventure before I talk about that.

As usual, I’ve omitted a lot of stuff for the sake of time and space.

—

We had been planing on going to the Zoo this past Saturday (9/13) for a little over a week. The weather was looking good so we were pretty stoked. As always happens the sunny sky forecast turns into rain right beforehand. I have never regretted how quickly I abandoned my plans to be a meteorologist. We had all but decided not to go, but SB decided to check the weather one more time (this is the day of) and it turns out they had pushed the rain back to the evening. Well, by this time were were about 2 hours behind where we should have been. But, not ones to miss animals, we took it upon ourselves to make it down to the zoo. It was gray skies, but animals are animals.

The trip itself was a bit of an adventure and took a fair chunk of time. There was no real straight shot to get there via public transportation, it was either a combination of bus/train or bus/bus. We opted for the bus/bus route and between waiting on the first bus, the layover at the bus station and then the second bus trip, it was a bit over 75 minutes before we got there. By this point it was almost 3pm and the zoo closes at 6pm. The good news is that it was not raining.

From where the bus dropped us off it was only a short walk to the zoo.

The main gate was sort of similar to the gate at the Berlin Zoo, I doubt that was intentional, but considering that they are both old zoos (Franklin: 1912, Berlin: 1844), who knows. This is actually the “Zebra Gate” entrance.

We went through, turned in our tickets then began looking for a place to eat. We had planned the day rather poorly I suppose and were both hungry. The plan was go eat, then explore, but we got pretty much instantaneously sidetracked by the animals.

The first up were some warthogs, which were running in big circles chasing each other, it was kind of funny. Next to them were some African Crested Porcupines, one of which was sleeping.

We pulled ourselves (read: me) away from those critters and took off for food. We thought we had found it, but ended up turning down the wrong path (or maybe I did it intentionally), which led us straight into a prairie dog kingdom.

I had never in my life seen so many prairie dogs in one place. It. Was. Awesome. I mean, I liked the prairie dogs at Columbian Park Zoo, but there were just so many here. I was getting all up and personal with them, then I noticed the sign that said to keep off the wall, whoops. Shortly after that we got back on track to find food, which took us through a barnyard area. Lots of zoos seem to have these, sure they aren’t very exotic, but I still like them. I especially liked the Nigerian Dwarf Goat, who was chilling out in the food bin.

After that we finally made it to the food place for noms. We didn’t stay long since time was ticking away and every once in awhile we felt a stray raindrop. One of our first stops as we made a big circle around the park was the tigers.

They also had a rare white tiger that wasn’t disfigured from inbreeding, but he (she?) was back towards the back and little difficult to see.

After that was the lion area. They had a cool thing one one wall where a safari jeep had “crashed” through the glass. You could go inside the jeep so that you were actually inside of the holding area, it was full of kids, but the lion wasn’t next to it anyways. It was a cool concept though. It reminded me of Jurassic Park for whatever reason.

The lion himself was sleeping, at least when we were there.

He definitely woke up later though, since we heard him roaring, which was pretty awesome (we were too far away to justify walking back though).

From the lion we went straight to the.. Camel?

Kind of an odd animal combo, except for the fact that this is a Bactrian Camel, which is from Asia. So his wooliness isn’t just because he is in cold ole’ Boston, in fact this is probably warm for him (Bactrians are primarily from Mongolia, for example). I always forget how huge camels are.

While watching the camel the train came by.

I’m honestly not sure if the train was free or cost money, but my guess is that it was free. The zoo covers a decent area and there is a large circular path (seen above) that sort of runs the gamut of the animals, the train takes you along the route if you are too lazy to walk (or unable).

We followed the train’s path which took us into one of the indoor areas. We actually came in the back door, which was totally fine and its even on the map, but it was not marked well. It looked like you were walking into a bunker or something. There were no soldiers inside the bunker though, just a big ole’ Tapir waiting for us.

There were a couple of birds in there with him and there was supposed to be a Capybara in there, but we seriously could not find it and oh did we try.

Near the Tapir was a Giant Anteater.

He did not cooperate and thus is sort of a giant blur. You can pretend he is Flash Anteater if you like. It was probably more to do with the low light and me not being good with cell phone cameras.

After this we came across a Potto, which I had never even heard of but was pretty awesome.

He apparently likes the dark too, which is why the pictures is hard to make out.

In the same building were some gorillas.

These are Western Lowland Gorillas. I learned something too. I always thought that “silverbacks” were an actual kind of gorilla, but it actually just refers to adult male gorillas of many different species. You can see what I mean in the above photo. They were playing with a stick, it was pretty funny.

Continuing on we found a Pygmy Hippopotamus, which are always awesome. He even had some duck friends.

In the next area was a Capybara.

That was about all I could see of him. Which is why I didn’t really explode with excitement when I mentioned it. He was just visible enough that you could tell he was a Capybara, but that was about it. This was actually the first of two disappointments I had. I won’t complain too much, though, since at least I did get to see one.

Near the elusive Capybara were some Tamarins, there was even a little bitty one that was just a couple of months old.

The baby is the one furthest right in the above photo.

About this time we crossed another viewing window for the gorillas, someone had decided it was sleepy time.

Just past the nap-nap gorilla was the Ring-Tailed Lemurs.

They are such cool creatures and they were really close to the glass. At one point a crowd of people with kids came in and the lemurs got very nervous, it was funny in its own kind of way.

We then excited the big building, through the main door this time. It was much nicer than the rear door.

Outside we saw one of my favorite creatures, which wasn’t actually an exhibit, the squirrel.

There were actually a ton of squirrels in the zoo, which isn’t really surprising since the zoo is park of the larger Franklin Park area, itself part of the (much) larger Emerald Necklace. Some of the squirrels were pulling ninja moves and running on walls and roofs.

By this time we had worked our way across the zoo and were near the “Giraffe Gate” entrance. There were supposed to be some Hyenas near that entrance, but they were either gone or not there yet, I’m not sure which (the map made it seem like they were there, but the sign said “Coming Soon.” The big “Bird World” was there and open though, they had a big dome you could walk through as the Condors and such flew around you.

Inside the Bird World building they had lots of little sections of birds, they seemed pretty happy, or maybe they were very angry and were screaming rather than singing.

They also had a Tawny Frogmouth. If you are like me, you have no idea what that is.

Its a bird, and yes, it looks like a frog. Its very, very weird. But I liked it regardless.

Outside were some Emus (SB’s ~~favorite~~ worst enemy), they had some Red Kangaroo buddies.

Near here was the COOLEST part of the entire day. They had a big netted hut-thing you could go in that was just FULL of Budgerigars (“Budgies”). It was AWESOME.

The zookeeper on duty gave us a little bit of food so that the Budgies (best name ever) swarmed us. It was cool because you normally have to pay 2$ to get the food, but since we the were only ones in there (the weather had kept the crowds away) I guess she decided to be extra nice. At one point I actually had 7-8 Budgies on my hand and arm, but neither SB or I had our phones accessible, so by the time I actually got my phone out several had left. The one furthest on my hand was my ULTRA BUDDY (Budgie) though, he stayed on there for a long time, best friends.

SB even got in the action and sometimes she is nervous about such things.

After exciting the Budgie house and seeing how far we could jump in comparison to an adult kangaroo (not far) the few pitter-patters of rain were increasing ever so slightly. We started making our way back towards the other side of the zoo, passing by the zebras.

And then the Masai Giraffes.

Technically it was “giraffe” only out of the three giraffes was actually out, I’m fairly sure it was due to the temperatures, which were unseasonably cold. One of their giraffes was massive (they had a sign up showing their height) and I mean massive, but it was one of the ones in their house.

We cut back through the barnyard area, there was a big cow in there that gave no cares about me sticking a camera up in its business.

Near here was the Red Panda house, but literally right as got there they were taking them in for the night. They have a camera where you can watch them inside, but with the door shut it was too dark (disappointment 2 of 2, Valentino was sad as well).

Things turned around quickly though, since after the Red Panda house we came to a building with sloths (two-toed). Commence SB freakout.

We then realized that the sloths had a baby, commence even bigger SB freakout.

Near the sloths was a turtle bro, getting him some noms.

Next to him was a smaller turtle bro, who was mad fascinated by SB and I, it was really cute.

Not everything was fun and games though, it was exercise times for the Degus.

The Skink wanted nothing to do with that though, he was chilling.

After that the rain was starting to come, but luckily we had pretty much made our rounds to we headed out. By this point I think we were one of like 5 visitors in the entire zoo, probably due to the weather and also they were closing (it was after 5:30). As soon as we left we found another squirrel.

We decided to take the bus to the train to get home this time, since it was a bit later. There was a bit of confusion about where the bus stop was (it was not marked) and I ended up having to sprint with my umbrella to make the bus, but I made it.

All in all, a good day with lots of animals buddies and Budgies.

—

So why the mixed opinion?

Well, it has to do with a few things.

First, while the zoo is in Boston, its in the neighborhood of Roxbury, which is a good ways down into south Boston. If you don’t know much about Boston geography, there are a lot of rough areas in south Boston. Granted, my ability to judge an area of a city as either “rough” or “not-rough” is rudimentary at best, but the “worst” areas of Boston are generally regarded as being in the south [I’m sure someone from Boston will read this and tear me to shreds, but I’m basing this on what I’ve heard so far]. Anyways, this is neither here nor there. My point is that the zoo was not in the best area of the city. This kind of diminished things as far as the trip as a whole goes. This was less important than the condition of the zoo itself though.

This is an old zoo, but more profoundly it is a zoo that has had a lot of financial trouble and has almost closed on more than one occasion. Back in the day and I mean way back (think 1910s and 1920s) when the zoo was free, it was quite popular, with over 2 million visitors per year. Its never recovered from becoming a pay zoo. In recent years admissions have been rising, but they are still only around 350,000. In light of this, the zoo apparently has a lot of financial issues, and it shows. The zoo as a whole seemed pretty worn down and some of the animal cages looked like they had not been updated in several decades. Only a few of the areas (namely the Flamingos) were what I would call full on bad, but I can’t say I was impressed with at least half of the areas. Some were pretty nice, it was pretty obvious which areas were new, or were at least renovated. But the zoo as a whole felt a bit dilapidated. The food was overpriced, limited, and just “meh” but you don’t really expect much from food at parks like that, so that isn’t much of an issue.

Tickets cost 17.95$ for adults, and similar to the New England Aquarium (which is 25$), I am not convinced that the zoo (or aquarium) justifies those prices. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy we went, but I’m not sure I could fully recommend the zoo at full price if someone asked. A reduced ticket or free admission (they have occasional free Fridays) would make it well worth the time though, and besides its not like the zoo can improve unless more people visit and spend money. The cool thing is that they give you a free admission if you fill out a survey, so both SB and I got two free tickets for filling out surveys, that is pretty cool. Additionally, all the employees (except for the food counter person, who was your typical apathetic food service person) were very friendly.

So, while Franklin Park Zoo did not supplant the Columbian Park Zoo for me, it was a fun day, even with the rather lackluster weather and the issues mentioned above. I’ll go back, especially since we have free tickets, but next time I’d like to go when the weather is a bit nicer and we can leave earlier in the day. I always loving seeing me some naminals.

Until next time,
-Taco

Beer Blurb 9/13/14 (Cambridge Queen’s Head)

October 20, 2014 by Taco

If you are wondering what the heck “Cambridge Queen’s Head” is, then you are in a good company. Until today I had literally no idea this place existed. In fact, I’m not even sure how I stumbled across it, but I did.

To answer the question, its a pub, or some people would say a college bar. Its affiliated with Harvard, and by affiliated with Harvard I mean Harvard owns it (Harvard owns more than one pub, interestingly). Not only that, but you have to be a Harvard affiliate just to get in, or at least be an affiliate of a Harvard affiliate who is going in with you. Confused? Nah didn’t think.

Anyways, this place is in the middle of the action, but is pretty much out of sight. That is because its underground, or in a basement rather. Its under the Memorial Hall, which looks like a giant church and is actually a building built in honor of Harvardians who died fighting on both sides of the American Civil War, so its a fairly old building. It does not look like the kind of place that would have a pub under it, but it does.

(The rather inconspicuous spot above is the entrance)

SB and I decided to try it and it was a bit of a mixed bag.

First off, when we got there (which was harder than than it should have been since 1/2 of their doors were locked and said they were closed), their menu was pretty much just a few appetizers, nothing else. We were told that this is because they had just opened three days prior after their long summer-season hiatus and also that pretty much their entire staff was brand new. Ok, fair enough, but it would have been nice if you advertised that fact on your website. However, since we were hungry we decided to stay, since the appetizers were advertised as being half price from 5 to 7 on Fridays. Nope. Apparently when appetizers are their entire menu that doesn’t apply. Strike two.

Fortunately that was the last of the strikes. The Cambridge Queen’s Head redeemed itself enough to warrant another visit (after some time has passed, of course) simply because they had a good selection of beer and the beer was cheap (for the area). Interestingly enough, they only have beer and wine, no liquor. They only serve liquor if you rent the place out for events. I am fine with this, but I found it interesting. They also have a really cool “Don’t Tip” policy, I read they pay their servers more to compensate, no idea how that works out on the whole, but for me its a good thing. Anyways, the two drinks we tried with out appetizers/dinner were:

1. Harpoon Brewery – Harvard 1636 Ale
2. Harpoon Brewery – Craft Cider

Ok, so two things. First, yes I get that the Cider isn’t a beer, SB got that one. Second, because its not a beer I had to link “Rate Beer” rather than “Beer Advocate” which I generally don’t like doing since Beer Advocate is vastly superior in my opinion.

Anyways, the Harvard 1636 is actually an exclusive beer for the Queen’s Head. Harpoon brews is just for them and just on tap. It’s the official unofficial beer of Harvard (since a University having an official beer might not be the best PR). Its called 1636 for a reason, any idea why? [Hint: Its pretty obvious] Its a Dark Wheat Ale and I have to say that it stood up to the “Dark Wheat” motif. It was very stout, in fact one of the more stout wheat ale’s that I’ve had. But it was quite good and the price was definitely right. I also found my pinky raising itself while I was drinking it. SB’s Cider was well, cider. Harpoon is a solid brewery, and its not because they are in Boston, I liked them long before I even knew where the heck they were at.

[Ok weird side note, there must be some huge ship coming up the Charles River because I just head an epic foghorn]

Anyways, Harpoon is good, so both drinks were good. My preference is soundly with the 1636 Ale, but the cider wasn’t bad by any means, it was just more “middle-of-the-road” in that it tasted a lot like most standard ciders do. I’m not sure what the “Craft” was supposed to reference.

So all in all a good Friday evening from a drink and price perspective. The food was just ok and it was pretty limited, they also didn’t honor their half price stuff. Like I said, we’ll go back to give it another chance, if only because of price, but we’re going to give it several weeks before we do.

We did get cool cow wristbands to show that we were 21 though, that was awesome.

Until next time,
-Taco

Beer Blurb 9/5/14 (The Thirsty Scholar)

October 17, 2014 by Taco

Alright, so this Beer Blurb is actually being written about two days after the fact (I’m writing this on 9/7). What can I say, I’m a law student, I’m busy.

Anyways, for this past Friday night out SB and I went to a nearby pub called “The Thirsty Scholar.” It was slightly above our price range, but not terribly so, and it was the end of the first week of classes so we treated ourselves. The food was pretty good, SB had an “Irish” BLT which was pretty much a Ham Lettuce Tomato and I got a Sweet Potato Black Bean burger with ham and split pea soup. We enjoyed both dinners. But this isn’t about the food, its about the beer. We had three different beers, two new, one relatively new.

1. Sea Dog Brewery – Sunfish Ale

2. Allagash Brewing Company – Allagash White

3. Boddington’s Brewery – Boddington’s Pub Ale

You’ll notice the Beer Advocate link for Sunfish Ale doesn’t actually link to the standard page, but rather an announcement page. I’m not sure what is up with that, maybe its sort of fallen through the cracks. Either way, you can at least read about it.

Above you can see Allagash White and Sunfish, I don’t think its too hard to figure out which is which. Boddington’s is not pictured, obviously.

Our beer selection started off interestingly. I asked about Sunfish Ale and the server pretty much told us it sucks. She gave us a sample (before checking our IDs, which she only did after serving us alcohol, haha) and it did not suck. It tasted a lot like Leinenkugel’s Orange Shandy, which is a good thing. SB ended up getting the Sunfish, I went with the Allagash. I had actually had it before, at least I think I have, somewhere since we’ve moved. I can’t recall where though. Anyways, both the Sunfish Ale and the Allagash White were good. The Sunfish was very much on the line between ale and shandy, and not necessarily in a bad way. The Allagash looked like it would be light and refreshing, especially with the lemon, but it was actually a very hearty wheat bear. Overall, we were impressed with both of them.

No so with the Boddington’s. I had been wanting to try it for some time, but it was oddly expensive for coming in a can. Now that I’ve had it, I wholly agree with “The Bros” (founders) from Beer Advocate, its awful. It was a weird pungent, creamy sort of ale, and yeah, I can’t say I’d get it again. It was interesting though, for possibly the first time ever SB liked a beer more than I did (the other notable instance of this is Blue Moon). She didn’t seem to think it was as bad as I did. Regardless, I finished it, because it was a sin not to. I spent the next couple of hours feeling pretty good since I was very much on an empty stomach when I downed the Allagash, so the Boddington just exacerbated things.

Still, two out of three ain’t bad.

Until next time,
-Taco

New England Aquarium

October 14, 2014 by Taco

[I’ve been meaning to write this post for literally one week, but just have not had the time thanks to school]

So I like animals, or naminals, or friends, whichever you prefer. This means I often go out of my way to see them.

In fact, just today [the day I write this post, 9/13] I actually got to pretend I was a chicken, of all things. There was a virtual reality thing at the law school where you go to be chicken, it was kind of neat. Of course it was put on by PETA so you got slaughtered at the end, but I still had fun. I think it was my first time ever doing virtual reality.

Anyways, I like naminals.

Here in Boston we have an aquarium, the New England Aquarium. While they get absolutely no points for originality of name, the aquarium itself was pretty boss.

However, its also very expensive. I’m talking, 25$ a person expensive. There is a small student discount, which brings the price down to 23$, but still, 46$ is just not something SB and I can really afford, even for friends. As such, we had pretty much written the aquarium off.

That is until my law school orientation came around. As part of orientation they were offering all sorts of little fun trips, all on the school’s dollar. These included things such as art museums, tours of Fenway park, trolley tours and most importantly, the aquarium. Heck, they even paid for your subway travel to and from the aquarium.

That is when Taco got an idea.

You see, orientation itself was four days long, and the trips were held on 2 of those four days, many of which were held on both days. So, I got a little sneaky. I went on the first day and got an aquarium ticket and a subway ticket. And then, you guessed it, didn’t go. After that.. you guessed it again, I came back the next day and did the exact same thing. This left me with 50$ worth of aquarium tickets, and 2 (there and back) trips into downtown Boston via the subway. A total value of about 60.60$ It might seem like I was being dastardly, but they never actually said you couldn’t go to a location more than once, nor did they say you actually had to go once you took the ticket. And since the tickets didn’t expire for over a year I figured SB and I could visit the aquarium when we had a chance. Lo’ and behold we went our very first Saturday.

(This was my first time using my new phone, which was my first ever smartphone, so some of the pictures aren’t all that great)

The building itself, which is rather odd looking, is located right down in Boston Harbor. In fact a lot of the water that the animals swim in (such as the penguins) is just filtered water straight out of the harbor, definitely efficient. Since we had special cool people tickets, SB and I got to avoid the MASSIVE line which was directly in the sweltering sun (it was about 90 degrees and humid that day). That was amazing, though I don’t think the people who watched us blow them by thought so.

Once you get inside you are pretty much immediately met with penguin friends (African Penguins).

The way the aquarium is laid out is actually pretty cool. The whole place is build around this large central column which is actually a huge tank. The penguins (all three varieties of them) surround the base of the big pillar. Pretty nifty.

Every once in awhile they turn on a sprinkler system for the penguins. I’m not sure if its just to keep the cool, wet, or to wash away the poop, but that guy above he was all about dat’ sprinkler.

They also had little itty bitty blue penguins (Little Blue Penguins), which I believe at the smallest kind of penguin (about 1/3 the size of an Emperor penguin).

SB was pretty much infatuated with them.

But so was I, so I can’t say much.

We also found Nemo.

And this guy…

..who was most definitely not Nemo, but I think he was awesome. I actually have no idea what kind of fish he was either, I couldn’t find him on the informational display.

This is one of the many angles you could look into that large central tank.

It was actually really pretty, especially since the top of the tank was open which allowed for some nice light rays to shine down through. There was also a diver in there cleaning things, but I didn’t get a good shot of him.

On the opposite side of the pillar was some crested (Rockhopper) penguins.

As we started to make our way up the spiral we encountered a gargantuan, straight out of hell lobster beast thing.

You can’t really tell it, but that thing was freaking huge.

As was this guy…

..because he was all up in my camera stealing my photo-space.

In the same tank was really cool polka-dot ray, I had never seen one of these before, not even on TV.

Near that tank were some sea dragons, which were really pretty and kind of like sea horses that have been mutated into super heroes/villains.

As we progressed higher we encountered an Eel.

He seemed buttmad about something, but the next person we saw:

Seemed very content with the world. I guess that happens when you are 120 years old.

Around this point we also encountered a dark room with some glowing jellyfish. I’ve always thought jellyfish were cool to look at, though I was horrified of being stung by them when I was younger.

Next up were some piranha buddies, who looked like they would have been more than happy to eat my face off for me.

Immediately adjacent to the piranhas were some jungle frogs, I actually played with one of them. Sadly I couldn’t touch them, but maybe they would have poisoned me and condemned me to a horrific death, so it might have been a good thing. But we played through the glass, he liked my finger.

Near the frogs was an electric Eel.

That sucker was huge. His tank was pretty cool. It had a meter hooked up to it that was measuring the voltage he was putting off and it changed from “Green” which was when he was just chilling and watching TV to “Red” where he was killing something. You could also put your hands on the panel and compare your output to his (Protip: You will lose).

Next up was the first of the “OMG YOU CAN TOUCH STUFF” rooms. Which allowed us to touch Star Fish, Urchins, a Flounder, and a small Horseshoe Crab.

They were all pretty nifty, (The Flounder was ultra slimy) but the urchins were weird. As soon as you got close to them they would grab your finger. They were sticky and poisonous. However, for whatever reason their poison doesn’t effect us at all. At least that is what the employee said. If I suddenly die, you know why. But yeah, they would grab you, since that is how they hunt fish. SB freaked out and scared a little kid next to her when she got grabbed, it was actually really funny.

We worked our way to the very top of the big central tank, which afforded us some good views looking down, including some sharks.

Of course by the time we made our way to the top, which took far far longer than it would for most people, it was time to go see the penguins get fed.

Of course the little blue penguins got fed as well, they were persnickety eaters though.

After that we headed outside for the Fur Seal, Sea Lion, and Harbor Seal training show.

By the time we got there it was really packed and we had a pretty distant seat. However the trainers made up for that by letting us get very up close and personal with the trainees.

Isac was a humongous guy (Northern Fur Seal).

The picture really doesn’t showcase how massive he was. I seriously thought it was a walrus at first, I am not joking. It was hilarious watching him waddle.

After the show everyone started getting a little sleepy.

Apparently this particular Sea Lion (I can’t remember her name, sadly) is known for sticking her tongue out when its nap-nap time.

As we made our way back inside for a snack (it was past lunchtime) we noticed one of the Rockhopper penguins had made himself King of the Hill, literally.

As we were eating lunch, we noticed a show being put on by the Harbor Seals. You can’t really tell it from this photo but they were painting pictures. I’m sure some rich animal activist in New York probably pays 20,000$ for them too. My phantom image hovers over the photo.

The last area of the aquarium was the larger “OMG YOU CAN TOUCH THINGS” area. It included rays and a few various kinds of sharks. Yep, sharks. There were even signs up warning you that you could get bitten, it was kind of funny. Of course I doubt people get bitten, at least not often. Naminals are more chill than most people realize if you go about existing with them in the proper ways.

As you can see from the photo above, it was pretty crowded. However SB and I were patient and managed to work our way up into a very good spot at the front of the line. You see what would happen is that the animals would start to swim towards you, then some kid (or adult) would start relentlessly thrashing and scare all of them away. So the key was to get in front of the plebs (as Tristen would say) so you could touch them before they got scared off.

That is me about to touch a ray.

And that is SB about to touch a little shark.

There were actually much bigger things in the tank, such as a massive whip-tail leopard ray which was just ginormous. There was also nurse sharks, full sized nurse sharks. We touched both things, but I didn’t get good pictures of them, so just believe me.

The rays felt like jelly blobs and the sharks felt like sand paper, it was pretty neat.

Under touchy room number two was another jellyfish exhibit. Some of them were really awesome, I got some cool pictures of them too.

And then some florescent ones:

And then some more glowing ones that were getting fed while we were watching them (all those particles are food):

They seemed very happy to get noms.

After that we had traversed the hole gamut. Like most of my posts I’ve left out several things, but it keeps the posts relatively short and also leaves some surprises should you ever go there yourself. (It also helps me go to bed earlier, since its about 1am as a I type this, haha.)

On our way back home it was still hot, which meant the subway stations were still hot, but overall I think it was actually a little better than it had been on the way down. In all, it was a really fun day, made even more so by the fact that my school had paid for literally everything except for lunch. I always love getting to see animals, especially when they are free (which is why I miss Columbian Park Zoo so much). On a similar note, MIL in FIL bought SB and I tickets to the Boston zoo, so you can expect a post on that sometime after we get a chance to go visit that bunch of friends. 🙂

Until next time,
-Taco

Beer Blurb – 8/27/14 (Narragansett)

October 11, 2014 by Taco

So, I only have one beer to talk about this time around, Narragansett. I’ve never had this beer before. I’ve heard of it, but never tried it. I actually didn’t even pick it out. I’m in the middle of law school orientation (as I write this, not necessarily when it gets posted) and I requested that SB get me some beer while she was out. Its not that orientation is overly stressful, but its not really fun either. Anyways, my only stipulation was that it was A: Cheap and B: Light enough for her to carry home alongside the soda. She was probably going to get me another Yuengling Light but they were out. So she went with Narragansett.

1. Narragansett Brewing Co. – Narragansett Lager

You’ll notice its in cans, see instruction A. My initial reaction to the beer was a bit lukewarm. It wasn’t bad, but boy it was not unique at all. I have to admit though, its grown on me as I start drinking the second one, but that is arguably true for most beers. To be fair though, I only poured the second one into a glass, the first was from the can, so that is a very probable issue. Anyways, Narragansett seems to be named after Narragansett, Rhode Island, which is itself named after the Narragansett Native Americans. They aren’t really forthcoming with this information for whatever reason. The brewery has a bit of a “fallen from grace” vibe, in that since its founding in 1890 it seen a rise to the top of the New England beers (a region of fierce competition) to a descent into a narrow market sector. Its slogan is “Made on Honor, Sold On Merit” not sure what the story is behind that, but they definitely didn’t take merit as payment.

Anyways, I had their Lager, the standard for the brewery. Its technically an American Adjunct Lager, which is a fancy way of saying its a light bodied beer, resembling piss, that came about after the American prohibition (which f*cked up our beer in a lot of ways, thanks conservatives). While I normally tend to be a bit more “nice” than Beer Advocate, this is one of the times where I don’t find myself agreeing with their relatively lofty (for a macro) ratings. Its not that Narragansett is bad for an American Adjunct, its just not special. I think if you put this and a PBR next to each other, you’d be hard pressed to tell a huge difference (its there, just not huge).

I’m not even sure how widely available Narragansett, but I’d probably have to recommend at least trying it for the price. This is especially true if you are a Red Sox fan, since this was apparently their official beer for 30 years. I looked but I couldn’t find their current official beer, though my guess is Sam Adams simply because that makes sense on a lot of levels.

Worth checking out, but not too memorable. Cool name though, even though they don’t seem to formally acknowledge its etymology.

Until next time,
-Taco

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Beer Blurb – 8/27/14 (Narragansett)

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