Aquarium Visit
We took our annual visit to the Vancouver Aquarium this past December. We go early in the month and just a bit later in the day to avoid the Christmas and field trip crowds. It is always a hi-light of our season, one Minime really looks forward to.
The Aqurium has a 4-D theater which usually features a marine biolgy themed movie. (4D means you will get sprayed with water and likely poked in the back by your chair.) In December, they break from the educational films and show an abbreviated version of the Polar Express. Given that both train and Christmas are big deal in this house, it is a twenty minutes journey of bliss.
We prioritize the movie and then spend the rest of the afternoon visiting with the resident sea creatures. Once upon a time, the facility housed ... watered ... Orcas. When that ran out of favour, they switched to belugas. The containment of most large aquatic mammals is know frowned upon, and the aquarium is down to rescued animals, including this rather vain male bull sea lion. I didn't have the heart to tell him and he so sweetly mugged for my camera. I would hazard among the girl sea lions, he is considered quite the babe.
December also means a visit from Scuba Claus and some very beautiful and festive seasonal decorations. I am blessed that even though Minime has entered his teen years, he still gets excited over all things Christmas. Minime got a treat hot chocolate out of the day. he doesn't get much sugar and he picked out my octopus mug Christmas pressie from the gift shop and then it was home for a couple hourse of book and computer study.
For those who would like to see a little more.
Art Mediums
We continue on study art theory. Today we are going to look at different art mediums for drawing and painting.
From our studies ...
The most familiar drawing mediums are pencil, coloured pencil, pen, chalk, crayon, and markers.
Markers draw with a smooth texture and have a rich colour palette. They are useful when outlining and can be both thin or thick depending on the marker width. You get a thicker, rougher texture with crayons, and colour depth depends on the pressure and number of passes.
Crayons have thicker lines than pencils and pens. The texture of pencils and coloured pencils are in the middle between markers and crayons. Coloured pencils are multicoloured and pencils are neutral greys. They have less colour potential than both markers and crayons. When sharpened they can offer a thin line, but not as thin as charcoal, pen, or marker. Pens draw smoothly and have thin lines and dark colour. Other drawing mediums are oil pastel and charcoal. Oil pastels give a fuller and richer colour then crayons. Their lines tend to be thick. Charcoal is black/neutral and is versatile. It can produce strong, dense lines or soft, light lines.
Water color is the most common painting medium. The colors are softe and easily blended. The other three painting mediums are tempura paint, acrylic paint, and oil paint. Oil paints are slow drying and have a richest, brightest colour. Tempura and acrylic paints are both fast drying. A painter will get a chalky finish with the egg yolk and water- based tempura, and acrylic paints will give a glossy finish. They both create a good base colour and distinct lines.
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I love aquariums, it looks like you guys had some fun! I've never seen a scuba Santa before! When my son was younger we used to go several times a year, it was always a lot of fun!
!BBH
Yes ... a trip to the aquarium creates great memories.
I’m always afraid I’ll get thrown in the shark tank! I had a friend who worked at one and they let me see the upstairs where it’s open above the public level and I was like nah thanks 🤣 🦈
Joking aside aquariums are cool! I haven’t been in a minute but I remember them handing out star fish to hold as a camp kid on field trip. I also took a first date to one to try and be original, she said going out for sushi right after made her feel bad and I only got one more date 🤷🏼♂️
!PIMP !DHEDGE
They are really cool! Well if she didn't want sushi after the aquarium she wasn't for you!
Sharks really aren't usually aggressive, diving I've seen tons of them and they are usually just passing through and not interested in us. It must have been interesting to see the off limits areas. Starfish are just so bumpy, what a weird fish!
!PIMP
!BBH
You must be killin' it out here!
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You earned 1.000 PIMP for the strong hand.
They're getting a workout and slapped 1/2 possible people today.
Read about some PIMP Shit or Look for the PIMP District
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You must be killin' it out here!
@geneeverett just slapped you with 5.000 PIMP, @thebighigg.
You earned 5.000 PIMP for the strong hand.
They're getting a workout and slapped 2/2 possible people today.
Read about some PIMP Shit or Look for the PIMP District
@prydefoltz! Your Content Is Awesome so I just sent 1 $BBH (Bitcoin Backed Hive) to your account on behalf of @thebighigg. (28/50)
It's clear you enjoyed the outing to the aquarium and you had the good grace to take pictures and share here with us. I hope the new week goes well for you. Thanks for writing.
Thank you so much. Wishing you the same:)
Those are lovely pictures. I’ve never in my life visited a big aquarium though but I’d do that someday. Also, I’m glad you had a wonderful time
Oh, I hope you get to someday:O
Going to such a place and seeing the fishes and seeing those special things gives us a lot of happiness and also a lot of peace.