The day started out with clouds, wind and rain. It was so nasty by the water that the agitation of the water produced a foam that the wind then threw across the road like snow. Very odd.

We headed to the aquarium at Moody Gardens to escape the weather . It is a cool pyramid-shaped building (one of the largest in the world - 12 stories high). We spent most of our time watching the seals & sea lions (there was a new baby seal), and then the penguins. There were four kinds of penguins - King (biggest other than Emperor), Chinstrap (named for their black strip under their chin), Rockhoppers (because they hop from rock to rock rather than walking), and Gentoo. My favorite were the Rockhoppers because of their fancy hairdo (and these particular ones are from Montreal). Roger liked the ones that shot out of the water right onto the rocks. lol

We noticed that each penguin was wearing a bracelet around their flipper. We happened to catch feeding time, which was awesome. They're so docile. There were 5 or 6 female workers hand feeding them fish, which we thought was odd. Then we learned that they hide vitamins in the fish, and they keep track using the bracelets (each bracelet has a different colour combination of beads) to make sure each penguin gets their vitamins each day . There have to have been 50 penguins there, so that's an amazing job every day. We also learned that they change the temperature and lighting in the exhibit to match the change of seasons for them (winter vs summer).

Moody Gardens has two other pyramids: the Rainforest
Pyramid, which I want to go to another day; and the Discovery Pyramid, which focuses on science-oriented
exhibits and activities.

When we walked out of the aquarium, it must have rained a lot because there was water everywhere. But the skies were clearing, and it was 64 degrees and beautiful out. Back home, we sat on our front porch and played cards. It was so nice to be outside in the light and fresh air. Tomorrow is supposed to be a nice, sunny day. So exciting!!