Photos: Giant Ants, Whales and a Talcum Powder Explosion

After spending too much of the weekend fighting with the family computer’s failing hard drive (and believe me, I have good incentive to resolve the issue- until I can get around to installing a new one, my own machine is forfeit), I starting procrastinating and flipping through the iPhoto collection stored on that machine.  I pulled some shots off for the GeekDad Flickr pool (which you should really check out, if you haven’t already), and included a couple of my favorites here.

This first photo is my daughter, Tasha, feeding a Beluga Whale at Marineland in Niagara Falls.  I’m not a huge fan of Marineland (too much concrete, not enough shade and not too happy with the idea of performing animals), but we’ve taken the kids here a few times.  Outside of the captivity/performance issues, I think it’s valuable for the kids to be able to see the marine animals up close.  The extra five bucks for Tasha to have the opportunity  to hand feed the Beluga was probably one of the best five dollars we’ve ever spent.

This was an early experiment in particle dispersion.  We accidentally  left a full canister of talcum powder within reach of Tasha and she dumped the entire thing down the furnace vent in her room.  The whole house smelled "baby fresh" for months…

Another pair from Niagara Falls, including this shot of a pool taken from the SkyWheel.  I’m afraid of heights, so my wife had to take this one for me.  And, of course no mention of Niagara Falls is complete without the obligatory shot of the falls..  In this case, It’s the Maid of the Mist in the process of getting very wet.  We took the tour and I can confirm that they give you those blue rain ponchos for very good reason.

Strolling along the main street at Sesame Place.  For someone who grew up on Sesame Street and the muppets, this was pretty surreal.  Oh yeah, the kids liked it too.

One of my favorite storefronts ever!  Zipperhead was in downtown Philadelphia.  No idea if it’s still there (we visited almost 4 years ago), or if they’re still experiencing that ant problem…

Finally, back the marine mammal theme.  This is one of the few shots I managed while on a whale watching tour in Provincetown in the summer of ’07.  Sadly, I spent the majority of my time on that voyage acknowledging the fact that susceptibility to sea sickness should be added on to that fear of heights thing… 

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