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Since it was still raining on our fourth afternoon in Newport, we opted for more indoor entertainment.

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And who doesn’t love an aquarium?

Yes, this one was small and heavily geared to children with various petting pools… but there were fish.

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And I love watching fish.

Almost as much as this turtle loved watching me.

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Watching fish lowers my blood pressure.

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And watching this small ray float back and forth made me smile.

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Especially when he surfaced for a few close ups.

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See?

He’s smiling too.

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A few days before we visited, I saw a printed advertisement for this aquarium in a local magazine. It showed a surround tunnel and I love walking through those!

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Of course the ad…. ⬆️

Turned out to be a bit different than the reality… ⬇️ .

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Yup.

That’s the tunnel.

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And yours truly is a little too large to have made that enjoyable.

😒

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But back to the fish.

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I fell in love with these little weirdos.

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And yes, I think we had a moment here.

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They were fascinating fellows to watch.

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All with slightly different markings.

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I turned to see what my husband thought of them but as usual… I’d lost him.

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You know he had to find someone to talk to besides me.

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So while he made friends with the marine biology student attendant…

I made friends with a shark.

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Who, it turns out, isn’t supposed to pop up vertically and greet guests… but I must be irresistible because he did it on multiple occasions.

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Kevin on the other hand, is a very friendly dude.

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And enjoys the occasional back rub.

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The lovely and quite special thing about this aquarium is that all the marine life comes locally from Narragansett Bay. Many… like Kevin who is blind in one eye… are disabled in some way and will have a permanently safe home here.

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The other creatures do a six month rotation for exhibition and are then released back to the wild.

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Once in a while invasive tropical fish are found …

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And are not released back in the bay to upset the natural order.

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Is that guy on the bottom waving?

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Tilt the picture slightly and I see an owl with a sharp beak.

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This poor fellow lost an eye.

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There’s the husband, still chatting.

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Fish.

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Fish.

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And more fish.

And though my spouse was still talking, closing time was 5:30 so we were politely scooted out the door.

Dinner was a local Chinese restaurant with very fresh and tasty food.

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And appropriate vacation fortunes.

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😊

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