Final Hurrah for Lake No More School

This past week-end was our spring break.

Vicki and I took our class, their siblings, and parents
to the Denver Downtown Aquarium, the IMAX to watch Ring of Fire,
and then we introduced them to fine cuisine at Casa Bonita.

I almost typed that with a straight face.

We left town at o'dark early.

  

I hate o'dark early.

Especially when that translates to before 6 a.m.

Even more when I haven't had my American Cowboy Coffee!

Everybody was on time and in good spirits.

Even the teachers.

We had a caravan of 12 vehicles that traveled to Denver.

2 families opted to go down the night before.

They were the smart ones.

We stopped in Cheyenne to drink and drain.

One family supplied juice and another supplied donuts.

Sugar overdose.

I was in heaven.

Then it was on to Denver and the aquarium.

After about Fort Collins I was no longer in heaven.

In fact, I'm pretty sure it was hell itself.

I hate driving in any type of traffic.

But we eventually arrived at the aquarium.

Our first activity was a class on coral communities.

This is Alicia.  She was our aquarium educator.

 

She did an exceptional job.

She also hit many of our science standards when she asked

the kids questions and they could answer them .... correctly. 

We were so pleased.

Alicia was really cool.

She showed us shark eggs.

And mollusks.

  

I fell in love.

 

 

Meet Oliver, the bearded dragon.

I may have to get myself one to soothe 

the pain of having my school close.

Never in a million years did I ever dream I would like reptiles.

Thanks Julie.

Thanks a lot!

Our class went by so fast and then we were free to explore the aquarium.

 

Don't mind the whited out area ---- those are my kids. 

Just use your imagination.

Or plug in images of the Little Rascals.

We rode the escalator up to the second level.

 

Other kids were running around, pushing and shoving 

to see who could be first to stand behind the deep sea diver suit. 

But not our kids.  

They were so well-behaved.

We saw at least a gazillion different type of fish.

 

 

  

Shall I keep going?

  

and going?

I'm kinda like the Energizer Bunny when it comes to lots 

of pics that no one wants to really see but are too polite to say so.

  

You have to realize that I took over 350 pictures.

 

  

Is this a mean looking fish or what?

 

I also got pictures of the Moray Eel, sea turtle, 

jellyfish, sea anemone and a seahorse.

 

 

 

    

 

 

Not to mention the animatronic animals

 

 

and the tiger.

 

I also thought of Sister Two while I was there.

 

 

 

They wouldn't sell me their sign ...

 

which is probably just as well.

Instead, they sold me this stuffed rattler ready to strike 

because you know who turns 40 this year!

Of course, I am an equal opportunity sister 

so I took a picture of a California coral snake.  

  

We wouldn't want anyone complaining about the lack of a picture, now would we?

Why is it that my snake pics turn out so much better than anything else?!

The highlight of the aquarium was feeding the sting rays.

You put a sardine in between your fingers like you would hold a cigarette 

and then you place your hand in the water and the sting ray swims over it and takes the fish from your hand.  It was so cool!

 

(Neither of these are my hands by the way ... like that wasn't obvious)

After all of this excitement, I had to fortify myself with my favorite treat:

chocolate mint dippin' dots ice cream!

Then we were off to the Museum of Natural History to eat our sack lunches.

As a good, responsible teacher I always pack an extra in case someone forgets theirs.

 

It was a good thing too, because our student teacher forgot hers!

We hung out for about an hour and then went to see

Ring of Fire at the IMAX.  It was pretty incredible.

After that, we hit Casa Bonita's.

 

We had a banquet room pretty much all to ourselves.

We even had a magic show with a real, live magician.

 

Does he look stoned or what?

 

He was pretty funny and the kids in the audience all loved him...

especially when his wallet caught on fire.

Of course, the trip to Casa Bonita wouldn't be complete without a trip

to Black Bart's Cave.

I had been telling the kids all week that I planned to scare

the be-jeebers out of them in the cave.

No one believed me.

 

They believe me now!