of fin and feather

a few days ago i cracked the reader to find an ad for the shedd aquarium, which was announcing free admission to the general aquarium all this week. having only gone to the contemporary art museum since moving to chicago, i decided this was the perfect chance for me to visit the fishes.

i rode the train to the library stop, and walked along the lake for the rest of my trip. it was beautiful to see the skyline from the other side and watch the ice grumble on lake michigan. it was also fucking freezing and probably the beginning of what i'm diagnosing as "cold lung", which has allowed me to impersonate Daniel Plainview quite accurately, according to my roommate. ("i drink your milkshake!")

anyway, i spent several hours observing the various fish, eels, lizards, frogs, birds, and snakes. it was pretty awesome, and i feel like they have a larger variety of animals than when i was last there. i'd forgotten how wonderful it is to walk through a museum by yourself with an ipod drowning out all the screaming kids and helpless parents. or helpless kids and screaming parents.

despite the free admission applying to the general aquarium only, i somehow found myself in the oceanarium. i watched the beluga whales and penguins do their thing for awhile, and then realized i was just in time for the last dolphin show of the day. i also noticed i was the only person seated in the audience not wearing a yellow wristband. whoops.

the show focused on the dolphin's training. while interesting, the best part was when the narrator pointed out that the island in the middle of the pool had another animal in training. sure enough, there was a large owl camouflaged against the island's brown rock staring or ignoring us. apparently, he was out there training to be part of the bird show. (i wasn't aware they had owls at the shedd. apparently they aren't either.) he was adapting to the dolphin's different environment, as well as the crowd's loud reaction and applause. the rest of the show, i was more focused on watching the owl than the dolphins. other than turning his head from side to side, he seemed perfectly content to not give a damn about any of what he seemed to consider "fowl play" going on around him. (i could only resist one pun in that sentence.) that is until the show's finale. in a spectacular display of strength and intelligence, all four dolphins breached the water in unison and continued to breach five times. at this point the owl was repeatedly splashed with a few drops of water, but he beat his wings and shook his body and looked totally disgusted by these idiot creatures turning tricks in front of him. it was absolutely the most hilarious real-life animal interaction i have seen in a long time. really, just the sight of a real owl and real dolphins in the same environment-- pretty funny.