I found myself with an hour or two to spare at at the New England Aquarium.  I’ve been there before, and I was really glad to go back.  I ended up spending a lot of time at my favorite exhibits instead of exploring the whole aquarium and decided to do a post featuring the animals’ personality and sass – that was why I was so fascinated by them, after all!

Myrtle the Turtle, the grand old dame of the aquarium.  She was making her rounds of the giant ocean tank when I arrived – and of course, she was the first animal I went to see.

Next, off to the African penguins, clearly annoyed by all the paparazzi. But she was so adorable that I just couldn’t resist snapping a few dozen photos.

The rockhopper penguins were next. They have sprinklers all throughout their exhibit, and this little lady walked straight into this one…

And proceeded to spend the next ten minutes bathing her left flank/armpit!  (Wingpit? Flapperpit?  Whatever it is, it’s quite clean now.)

After that, I headed out to the sea lions, who were good-naturedly squabbling – they seemed to be energized by the cold weather.  The one on the right is sliding into the water, which stopped the fight very effectively.

On my way back in, I stopped by a tropical fish exhibit and found this depressed fish.  There didn’t seem to be anything physically wrong with her – she just was too down to swim.  I found the Eeyore of the aquatic world and she’s a bright pink tropical fish.

I circled back around to the sea lions right before I left – this one was lazing about in the shallow end of the pool, clearly enjoying her Sunday.

Then she rolled over on her back and proceeded to give herself a nice belly rub!  If my dog ever learned how to do this, I would become purely superfluous.

I’m definitely planning on going back to the aquarium and spending some quality time with these characters – they’re such goofballs and so active that I always feel like I’ve walked away too soon.