Maui Ocean Center

After the awesome staff at Makena Surf brought cake and singing, our family of four headed up the road to the Maui Ocean Center.  We had purchased week long passes online for the price of one day's admission.  It was a pretty sweet deal that we knew the grandparents would appreciate later in the week.

Shortly after our arrival, we were approached by a woman named Wendy, a naturalist employed by the Maui Ocean Center.  She offered us the opportunity to take a behind the scenes tour for the bargain price of $10 a head.  With just eight other folks, we would be taken into the Employees Only lab and given a tour by one of the marine biologists that would include feeding the sea turtles and the hammerhead sharks.  My answer was, "Heck, YES!"

We had about forty five minutes before the tour started.  We spent that time enjoying exhibits.  There were so many cool tropical fish to see.  The boys were completely enthralled.  Some pics to prove it:

 Paul's favorite cat is named Toby.  It belongs to our friends.  He spotted this fish. It's a Toby, too.

Luke liked this sub.  This is an amazing shot of his shiner.  Good times.

When the time came for the tour, I was honestly a little unsure how this would go.  We met up with Wendy and the other tour participants at the pre-arranged bench.  The boys were a little tired and grumpy, so I was prepared to bail if necessary.

The tour started and we headed right for the lab.  My boys were UBER impressed with the small, slightly smelly marine biology lab.  Did anyone doubt?  Larisa, the marine biologist, talked us through how they grow the food for some of the animals.  It's like plankton, people.  The boys were enthralled.

 Larisa in the Lab

Then she showed us some of the coral they are growing.  Again, the eight and the six year old were WAY into it.  Around the corner she showed us a moon jelly which the boys were able to touch.  VERY cool.  She also showed them this other little creature thing, the name of which I can't recall.  The boys were totally attentive and interested in everything.  It didn't hurt that they were the only children on the tour, so they had no competition for touching things and getting the front row view.

 Larisa holds the Nameless Creature while Paul reaches out and touches it.

 Nameless Creature and Paul

Luke after touching the moon jelly...a little grossed out. ;-)

We then ventured outside where they have the baby sea turtle tanks that aren't for public viewing.  Oh.  My.  Word.  The cutest thing I've ever seen is a baby sea turtle splashing my eight year old in a way that seemed to be on purpose.  Adorable times a million.  We were able to spend about fifteen minutes with that brand of cute.  Larisa even fed them while we were there.  The boys were given lots of cool information about the turtles, all of which I completely missed because I was so busy taking pictures.

The next stop on the tour was the adult sea turtle exhibit where we were all able to toss in the cubes of homemade turtle food, along with a bunch of lettuce leaves.  CHOMP!

Cube of turtle Jello - veggies and algae in a gelatinous cube - YUM! 

Then we headed over to feed a bunch of fish parts to the hammerheads and rays.  MEGA CHOMP!  It was at this point that Paul answered one of Wendy's questions correctly, telling the entire group that the smallest shark in the world is the Dwarf Shark.  Thank you very much, Multnomah County Library System.  It was awesome.

We finished the tour in the underwater tunnel where Wendy gave us more information about the sharks and rays in this particular exhibit, including the important role of sharks in the ocean.  She then invited all of us to stick around for the public feeding of the sharks and rays by a diver in about thirty minutes.  The boys were TOTALLY interested in that.  We spent the next thirty minutes hanging out in the underwater tunnel and managed to get front row seats for the dive.

We posed this shot while we waited for the dive to start, but it's still super fun!

Front row seats for the dive!

Lo and behold!  The diver turned out to be Larisa!  She waved and said a special greeting to the boys from the tank.  Wendy was in the viewing area with her own microphone, asking Larisa questions and giving the audience, a group of probably 75 folks, the chance to do the same.

Larisa and the spotted ray, a favorite of everyone's.

At the end of the presentation, Wendy said that one child would get a prize for answering the following question correctly.  "What is the role of sharks in the ocean?"  Luke's hand shot up and Wendy made her way to him.  (She knew she had a ringer!)  Luke leaned into the microphone and explained that sharks are important because they get rid of diseased and dying fish in the ocean, keeping it clean.

People, I just about wept.  There are very few opportunities when this homeschooling mom gets to see her kids shine in public.  They shine every day in our home, but it's kinda special when I get to show them off a little bit.  Luke won his prize, a very cool shark identification card.  The presentation ended and we headed for the car.

For the record:  The $10 tour at the Maui Ocean Center is TOTALLY worth it, people!  They only give it on Tuesdays and Fridays, so plan ahead if you are going.  Ask for Wendy.  She rocks.  In conclusion, it was simply an awesome day.