Around the World with Captain Duvet

Lately, Captain Duvet has been doing a whole lot of traveling. He went to Washington, D.C. and Beijing.

Later, he spent a few days in a villa in Tuscany.

What a busy bird!

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Animaliversary

Without realizing it, we basically spent our whole anniversary weekend staring at animals. The first priority was the penguin exhibit at the fabulous St. Louis Zoo.

We probably saw some other animals as well, but I mean. Come on. Penguins.

Day two was ostensibly animal free. We went to the City Museum, a menagerie of rusty metal and dangerously tight spaces.

But we had to break up that long day of climbing around with a trip to the aquarium that lives on the second floor of the City Museum. This place has fish. I swear it does. But it also has an amazing array of non-fish, most of which you can pet.

The most awesome thing we saw was the sloth feeding. I <3 sloths. In a serious way. Sloths are the new penguins.

So, apparently, we go on a lot of trips where we spend our time staring at animals. Who knew?

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Japan Silliness

We saw some crazy funny things in Japan.  Things that went well beyond Engrish.  For instance, have you ever seen me wear a pair of glasses this large and attractive before?

This was at the airport/train station, so I am thinking it is meant to appeal to gaijin?

Eddy is certainly an "old dude" although I am not sure I would describe him as "cool."

This was at the sumo stadium.  They had a whole advertising campaign with this sumo wrestling poultry group.

Japanese people love cut outs you can stick your face in for photographs.

Yeah, so also, there was this whole brand of clothing called Edwin--stores everywhere.  Their moto is "Original wear styling at an exceptional value."  We didn't actually find this to be the case as everything there was super expensive.

I am a trash talker.  So is this trash can.

Also, when I was in Japan, I met my new love.  He kind of looks like Eddy, don't you think?

Yeah, so we stayed at a ryokan where they provide yukata for you to wear.  Thank goodness, because Captain Duvet was getting kind of chilly that night.

We also have lots of the good, old fashioned Engrish pictures if that's what you crave.  Just check out our Japan set on Flickr.  That's all for the Japan posts!

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Japanimals

One of our favorite things about Osaka was the kaiyukan (aquarium).  There were penguins there, so you know we had to go.

We got there just in time to see them being fed!

Unlike American or European aquariums that we have visited, there was some pretty strange signage to let the gaijin know how to behave.

I am guessing this one is warning us not to ride the fish.  In addition to strange signage there were strange and never-before seen fish.

I dare you to try to ride that fish.  He was pretty huge.  Also this one.

You are also not allowed to hold crabs above your head.  Or maybe you are.  I can't really tell from the sign.

Really, though, they had an amazing collection of jellies.

Just as we were leaving we spotted an entire floor called the kawaii (cute) collection.  We had to see this.

It was mostly miniature and baby sea life. Like these adorable jellies.

You can just make them out under that adorable face I am making.

Also, they had a large touch pool with sharks and rays.

Although I am not sure I would consider sharks and rays kawaii.

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The NEW Single Most Important Day of My Life

You may remember my love of the Edinburgh Zoo penguin parade. Well, that experience has now been surpassed by the Moody Gardens Seal and Penguin Experience. This past weekend, we spent almost 6 amazing hours interacting with the penguins and seals in the Aquarium Pyramid.

We were keepers for a day, so first we cleaned their exhibit. Yay penguin poo!

Next, we prepared their diet (read: stuffed vitamins into dead fish)

Then we got to feed the penguins by hand. We don't have any pictures of this because it's harder than it looks! We had plenty of time to bond with them in the exhibit throughout the day. Originally, we had planned that Eddy would create a diversion to distract the keeper so that I could hug a penguin. It turns out this was not necessary. The king penguins were very social and liked to be petted and hugged! Here's Eddy getting friendly with one of our favorites--Bumblebee.

We both had a couple of "romantic encounters" with Bumblebee, so that was very v-day apropos. Bumblebee has a genetic disorder that prevents him from growing feathers on this stomach.

After lunch, we got to pet one of the seals named Porter.

Porter only has one eye and one of the other seals, Squirt, is completely blind. But they are well-adjusted and frisky.

We also got a sneak peek at the two newest penguins--a baby Gentoo and baby Chinstrap penguin. These guys aren't old enough yet to brave the public exhibit, but the Gentoo will be out on exhibit at the end of March and the Chinstrap should be out soon after that.

Finally, we did some penguin art with our friend Bumblebee and another King penguin named Creole.

This was an amazing opportunity to learn more about penguins and seals and have a chance to interact with them! Thanks so much, Carol, for the most amazing birthday present ever!

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Nicci Birthday Part II

So after we got to Austin, the fun really began! (Not that the Igloo factory wasn't any fun...) We met up with our Houston besties, Rebecca and Alan.

We had dinner at Hyde Park Grill (which, incidentally, was also born in 1982!) Rebecca and Alan brought me some sweet birthday presents including monster cookies, a lil penguin and (my favorite!) Dots!

When we got back to our hotel, we enjoyed monster cookies + ceramic mugs filled with a nice champagne. (We're so classy.)

A totally awesome evening!

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The Single Most Important Day of My Life

I am a penguin fanatic. See exhibit A:

We own no fewer than 3 stuffed penguins, one of which is a 3 foot king penguin who sleeps in bed with us--his name is Captain Duvet. So when we found on that the Edinburgh Zoo has the largest penguin exhibit and the largest population of captive penguins in the world, we had to go.

The Gentoo penguins had just begun their nesting season, so we got to watch some amazing nesting and coupling behavior.

There was even a baby King penguin.

The most amazing part of the visit, however, was the penguin parade. I was a little bit worried about the parade because zoos sometimes make me feel sad if the animals don't look well-treated or well-adjusted. I had visions of keepers parading the penguins around for the pleasure of spectators. Also, I expected all kinds of fan fare that would make these little birds anxious. I am happy to report that the parade was very well-handled. All of the spectators lined up along a path and were warned not to touch the penguins as they walked by (they bite). Then the gates were opened and any penguins who chose to walk the "parade route" between one part of the enclosure and another part were allowed to go at their own pace, closely supervised by the keepers.

They get higher parade participation in the Summer months, but we got a group of 8 Gentoo penguins who walked the parade that day. Needless to say, it was a rare opportunity to see these beautiful birds up close.



Click here for more photos of our visit to the Edinburgh Zoo.

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Happy Birthday, Eddy!

The other week, we went to Chicago to celebrate my 30th birthday with family and friends, and to visit some of my favorite Chicago places. We started off with a trip to the Lincoln Park Zoo on Thursday:


We made sure to see the penguins, Nicci's favorite animal:



On Friday, we went to visit the Museum of Science and Industry, which is apparently (according to their website) the largest science museum in the western hemisphere. I mentioned to the woman at admissions that I was in town for my 30th birthday, and that I used to volunteer at the museum (a long, long time ago), and she gave us a big discount! That was really nice. Here is a picture of me on a climbing wall that represents navigating the ups and downs of business:


On Saturday night, we had a big party at the Street Side Bar and Grill in Logan Square, with a bunch of my friends and family. Here are some of my friends, with a handsome guy in the middle:


Nicci's family also came up from Missouri as a surprise. Nicci didn't even know they were coming! Here is Evan (Nicci's brother) sitting across from me at Street Side, with a reserved expression:


After the party, Nicci was not feeling well, so she went home, but I continued my night of debauchery at Maciej and Christie's sweet new pad. I didn't take any pictures, though, just in case I run for president some day...


After that, Nicci and I checked into our favorite Chicago hotel, the Inn of Chicago. We got a sweet room on the top floor, with a great view of downtown. It faced west, too, so we saw two sunsets over (or through) downtown. Here is a picture of almost the same view, from the hotel's roof deck:


I also worked some more of my birthday magic: the hotel manager gave us free drinks for my birthday!

We enjoyed our last day in Chicago, Sunday, doing some shopping on the Magnificent Mile. Here is Nicci taking a quick, pink break from shopping:



All in all, it was a great trip. Thanks to all my family (and Nicci's family too!) and friends for making my birthday party an excellent night!

Click here for more photos.

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