North Queensferry

Brandon snapped this shot on our way down to the aquarium.

Last Friday we ventured out to North Queensferry. It’s the first stop on the other side of the Forth rail bridge and it’s a neat little coastal town. Our major purpose for going there was to go to see Deep Sea World, Scotland’s national aquarium. It was expensive, but totally and completely worth the 13 Pounds it cost each of us to get in.

We started out by looking at all the little colourful fish just inside the entrance. They were blue and green and orange and all of them amazingly vibrant. Most of them were pretty small but there were a few that were of rather substantial size too. Especially two in one tank that looked like grumpy and wrinkly old men.

The aquarium is broken down into different areas, one of which is called Jaws. There are all sorts of creatures there that are known for their teeth. In one tank there were huge catfish looking all mean and grumpy and in another a small school of piranhas. Larger, red bellied piranhas were a little further along and there was also a huge alligator snapping turtle sitting totally still in his habitat. He had a very nasty looking mouth and a wormy like thing wiggling away on the end of his tongue. That was the only thing moving as we watched him – without that movement he looked like a big rock.

Piranha!

Snap!

The best part of the day came next in our journey through the building, the underwater tunnel. It’s a 112 meter long aquarium holding 1 million gallons of water. There are countless fish and rays in there along with small and very large sharks. Just as we walked into the tunnel, just as we finished taking photos of each other “underwater”, we watched an angel shark working to hide itself in the sand at the bottom. It would kind of lift up and then slam its body back down and then wiggle and shudder to get underneath as much sand as it could. This happened over and over until all you could see was the top of its tail fins. We checked back in on it on our way out and it was still there just completely still.

Watch out Brandon!

This is the angel shark all covered up.

We lucked out and got to see the divers come into the tank to feed the fish. The big sharks stuck close to the surface while this was going on which kind of surprised me. The guide said that they get fed every other day and are used to getting their food on sticks so they don’t try to eat any of the other fish in the tank. Or the divers! The fish take chunks of food right out of the divers’ hands and some of them come back over and over trying to get back in front and get more. Especially the stingray – the guide said she’s the hungriest fish in the whole tank.

It almost looks like they have eyes on the bottom too.

We stood and watched all of the fish in the tunnel for a long time. It was so neat to see the underside of the rays with their smiling mouths and gills. They look like they’re flying as they float along through the water and that really reminded me of snorkelling in Mexico last Christmas. There were also crabs and lobsters in the tank but we didn’t see them much. We did see one eel, but only really his mouth and one eye as he peeked out from his hidey hole.

Creepy looking eel!

We left this area and spent some time trying to find sea horses. I found three in their leafy and bright aquarium. They’re super hard to spot as they’re very shy and nervous creatures. There was a tank full of little Nemo fish next door to them that we ooh’d and aah’d over and then we headed into the reptile room.

There really is a sea horse in this photo, I promise!

Nemo!

They had all sorts of icky and slimy creatures in there. There were brightly coloured, sticky looking frogs that are highly poisonous. In fact, I think all of the frogs they had on display were full of poison! Taking pictures of them through the glass made me wish I was seeing them in their natural habitat – how great would it be to see them sitting on a rock in the middle of a rainforest?

A poison arrow frog enjoying his mist.

Brilliantly blue little frogs. Also highly poisonous so no kissing these guys!

And finally we made our way outside to the seal sanctuary. The tank itself was not all that fabulous. It actually looked a little mucky and the smell was rather, well, nasty. But the two seals seemed to be having a good time. They are a mother and daughter pair and we watched them swim around a bit and then also watched them as they were fed. The older one, Morag, is 20 years old and her daughter, Heather, is 12. Heather did all sorts of tricks for her food but Morag was happy to just be rubbed and patted by the trainer. They use feeding time to look over the seals to make sure they’re in good health. I can’t remember just how much it was, but they said the seals eat the most fish of any of the creatures in the entire facility. It was funny to watch the seals roll themselves from the “beach” back into the water. It reminded me of little kids rolling down a hill – lean half way to one side and then throw yourself the other way and just roll and roll and roll to the bottom. It was hilarious!

This is Morag checking out the crowd.

Dinner time!

We left there a little reluctantly. It was a really neat place and with Simon Fish waiting for us at home, we kind of felt a neat connection to all those fancy fishes. I can’t imagine him getting as big as some of the ones we saw! We bought our souvenir magnet and headed back up the hill to find some lunch. We ate at one of the little hotels where we were nearly alone in the pub’s dining room. Best carrot and coriander soup I’ve had yet!

Back up the hill to the train station we went and after a bit of a wait, we got onto our train and made our way home. It was a really great day!

Today is Valentine’s Day but we marked the day with dinner on the weekend and with gifts and cards yesterday. On Saturday night Brandon made us a fantastic dinner of braised lamb, mashed parsnips and wilted spinach. Oh man it was good! I had a hard time getting past the fact I was eating something that used to be a cute little animal, but I promised Brandon I’d try it and I did actually like it. Yesterday he came home from work with a dozen absolutely beautiful white roses for me along with a card and a piece of cheesecake from one of our favourite little restaurants. He’s so good to me! I gave him an mp3 player so he has something to occupy his time while he’s on the train to band practice twice a week, and I pre-loaded it with all the piping tunes we have saved on the laptop. And I also bought a deck of playing cards and wrote one thing I love about him on each card. So sappy, I know. But that and the flowers and the cards all made for a really sweet evening.

Oh one more thing: Happy birthday Craig!