Oceans 11 - day 3

For our third and last day on the field trip, we started off by heading to the Cabrillo Aquarium for a fun little private tour.

There were lots of fish in tanks to look at,

live fish you could actually touch,

whale bones you could touch too,

fishy photo opportunities,

and even fishy costumes to dress up in.

After lunch, and a group photo on the beach,

and then we headed over to a marine mammal rescue center, where we saw how they were rehabilitating sea lions and such.

Finally it was time to head home.

Believe it or not, it was on the return trip home that my favorite and least favorite moments happened.

When the kids got on the bus, they were given a booklet to fill out with games and activities and such concerning the trip. One of the pages was a blank lined page in which they were instructed to write something about their trip- a song, a poem, a story, or even a top ten list. Maddie started off writing a song to the tune of Smash Mouth's All-Star, and also worked on a top ten list when she'd get a bit of writers block.

Starting at the back of the bus, they had the kids come up to the front one at a time, and read what they wrote. 95% of the kids had written top ten lists. (it was pretty much the same list over, and over, and over again.) Maddie included. She kinda chickened out and wasn't brave enough to sing her song.

Until after one of the pit stops. She approached her teacher, and announced she had not one, but two songs she'd like to sing, one of them was oceanography related, and the other was just a silly song she learned at girl scouts. She did such a good job, I was so proud of her. She had the attention of the whole bus as she sang and acted out lines like "wrapped my arms around my waist, got so fresh I slapped my face". She was brave. She was cute. She was funny. She was entertaining. I couldn't believe we were related, I never in a hundred years could have done that.

Then of course her bravery inspired other wanna-be pop stars to come up and plug in their earphones, and sing along to their favorite song on their ipods (so, so very painful to listen to- is it wrong to say my daughter was hands down the best? Of course in second place would be Katarina's dad- Brian, who at the very end sang a song he wrote about the trip to the tune of "My favorite things" and got a little choked up every time he mentioned spending time with his daughter.)

So my worst moment. There aren't a lot of eating options in the town we stopped at for dinner- Blythe. Usually, they stop at Burger King or Taco Bell, but this time we all agreed that Sizzler might be a better option. I know, what were we thinking? I forgot there is a reason why I can't remember the last time I've ever been to Sizzler. The food was lousy, the service was worse (the manager was mad at us because we didn't all sit together, but when we got there, they said the tables they had planned for us weren't ready, and to just go find any empty tables to sit at) and to cap it off, at one point a waiter tripped and splattered clam chowder all over me and Mrs. Hamlin (the teacher who organizes this trip). It was on my shirt, on my face, in my hair. I think it would have been funnier if the manager was nicer, but I got the impression he was annoyed with us for getting splattered on.

Moral of the story? Sizzler is NEVER the better option.

Anyways, despite the clam chowder incident, I'm glad I went. I think I spent more time studying my daughter in her natural environment than I did any fish. What I observed- all sorts of kids like her, and adults love her. She's brave and funny and can command an audience when she wants to, but doesn't need to make a scene and act like an idiot to get attention (like some of the other girls I observed).