There are Penguins in Africa?

My birthday was on March 1 and Sammy surprised me with a "Meet and Greet" with the penguins at the Newport Aquarium in Cincy. He knows I love animals, so this was a really fun surprise for me! =) We had a great day together...and I think we both wished we had majored in marine biology in college. LOL Here are a few pics from our trip! If you want to see them all, I put them up on facebook =).

Sammy woke me up that morning and gave me a card... well, with it there was "lucky penny" in there. So we get ready, go out to the vehicle, and he has a little birthday sash and my seat decorated, etc. Well, he also has some lottery tickets on my seat, and he jokes with me that whatever I win, I can spend at Motherhood Maternity. So, I scratch off the lottery ticket and win $20,000! Well, Sam starts laughing and fills me in that he had bought these "lottery tickets" as a joke from Spencer's. I think he really wished he could have kept the joke going longer, so that I would call up family members... but he started laughing right away and had to tell me =). Lol

Our marine biologist tour guide telling us about the penguins. These are African penguins so they don't get as big as the kind that live at the North Pole.

Sammy and I weren't allowed to stand up, so that we wouldn't scare the penguins. But they all waddled over to us right away =).

There were four adult penguins...all conveniently named after American Idol judges (Simon, Randy, Paula, and Kara) - and then there were four baby penguins. But the baby penguins were kept in a seperate area from us, and weren't allowed to waddle over and have us pet them.

This one immediately waddled over beside me to check out my coat =).

And for whatever reason, these penguins liked to run around between Sammy's legs... this pic is before he got penguin poop all over his shoe - haha... Also, the penguins actually got jealous! If we showed too much attention to one of them, another one would come over and peck at that penguin or hit him really hard with his wings, till we petted that one too. How funny!

Sammy petting Simon... who had a crush on him =)

The regular part of the aquarium... Sammy touching a horseshow crab.

The underneath side of a horseshoe crab.

This is in the bird area... this sign killed me "Caution Wet Floors" b/c those birds had been fed so much bird food (you could buy it for $1.00) that you constantly had to watch what you were standing under.

All of the birds were full, but Sammy finally got this one to eat a little bit.

At the end, there was the shark petting part...

Then Sammy and I saw the Purple People Eater Bridge (but it was too cold to walk it), went to eat, and then played games at the arcade. This was our favorite one... The Deal or No Deal Game - but I think it was rigged. We both ended up with the $2.00 case.