Last weekend, the Lone Star Girl had a sleepover in the Texas State Aquarium with the Girl Scouts and she had a lot of fun. I'm glad she got to go. I have been straddling the moral fence by having her attend group functions and field trips there, which we don't pay for, even though we no longer visit the Aquarium on our own anymore.
Shortly after the Lone Star Girl was born, we got a family membership to the Aquarium and we spent absolutely huge chunks of her babyhood and pre-school years there. We were there almost every weekend to look at the fish and we loved it. We saw shark eggs squirming with fascinating embryos, gorgeous jellyfish and the ever-popular cownose rays, otters, tortugas, eels and nurse sharks. It was a great place to spend time with a child and was arranged to be highly educational as well as pleasant. Once the Lone Star Girl was pushing three, we started going to their sea-schoolers programs which were also great. Then, the place changed.
Exhibits began to get very commercial and to be arranged much more sensationally than educationally. They started talking about getting dolphins. You could stand inside the gates of the Aquarium and watch the wild dolphins dance in the bay at any time, but apparently that wasn't enough. They decided to build an area for "rehabilitated" and captive-bred dolphins. They did it. They started having shows like a certain place in San Antonio and Florida. I couldn't go back.
I want to, though. I want to take the Lone Star Baby, who has never been, and show her the parts that are still humane and educational, while avoiding the others. I don't, but it is very disappointing.
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