Hanging with the Critters at Reptilia in Toronto – Look What We Did!

I don’t know if any of you have been following the weather in Canada.  If you haven’t, let me sum it up:

It’s freaking cold!  It is freeze-your-ass-off COLD!  It is several degrees below ZERO. 

FAHRENHEIT.

It’s not cold like “oh hey, it’s a bit nippy outside” cold. 

It’s more like “oh hey, my arm just fell off, but thankfully I’m too numb to feel it and I’m too frozen to bleed” cold!

So I did what any smart person would do, and I left beautiful, warm, sunny Myrtle Beach (where people are wearing shorts right now) and flew to Toronto see my beautiful Bingles.

Why, you might ask, would an otherwise smart person fly from a gorgeous resort town to a frozen wasteland?

THIS is why.

Ah yes, the beautiful Bingles.  Gorgeous inside and out.  So beautiful, so loving, so caring, so brilliant, so perfect in every way, that I knowingly flew to Coldtopia to spend a week experiencing what it’s like to freeze internally. 

So anyway, while I was up there, we decided to fulfill our addiction to critters (and pretend we weren’t in the Arctic) by going to Reptilia in Toronto.

Reptilia is a really cool place!  It’s kind of like a smaller version of Ripley’s Aquarium, except with reptiles instead of fishies.

Here are some pics that Bingles took of me cavorting with the swamp monsters.  There were a lot more creatures there, but here are the highlights:

 

We start off by meeting my new BFF, whom I’ve named Bert.  Bert was the patriarch of this particular clan of iguanas, so he kept a close eye on me at all times.

 

 

Here is Bert yawning.  He would also move his head up and down while puffing his little turkey-neck thingy (you gotta appreciate my scientific lingo).  I think this was meant to be some kind of alpha-male “step off my turf” display.  Anyway, I just did it back to him, not to threaten him but because I thought it was funny-looking, and I wanted him to see how silly it looked.

 

 

I named this iguana Ernie.  He slept the whole two hours we were there.  Watching him sleep made me tired, so we took a little nap together.

 

 

Feeling rested and refreshed, I decided to show my appreciation of nature by poking at angry snakes.  Incidentally, I have a pair of snakeskin shoes that are almost exactly the same color as this guy.  I didn’t tell him though.

 

 

Feeling somewhat amorous, I started to kiss every scaly thing in sight, starting with this snake.

 

 

This Gila Monster was one of the few things that actually was eager to kiss me  back.

And don’t think I didn’t appreciate it either.  It’s nice to feel loved.

 

 

It’s true what they say; kissing a bunch of strangers is tiring.  So I went back and napped a bit with Ernie.

 

 

Not wanting to do the stereotypical “toad kissing”, I chose to mock them by puffing my face out at them.

Unfortunately, amphibians are well-known for their lack of appreciation for physical comedy.

 

 

Reptilia is chock full of gators and crocs.  In fact, they have the largest crocodile in captivity, or the largest crocodile in Canada, or whatever.  Something like that.  They have a very big crocodile, so big that it has the distinction of being the largest something-or-other.

But he/she was hiding in the corner, so I decided to party with this guy, who in my humble opinion is the most friendly crocodile/alligator in all of the Greater Toronto Area.  Friendly, or maybe just hungry.

 

 

And yes, I kissed him too.

 

 

These guys were *ahem* busy.  I did not kiss them, as Bingles informed me that doing so would be a violation of several Canadian laws.

 

 

 

This angered me very much, and led me to have a temper tantrum, followed of course by another nap.

 

Unfortunately, we did not get any pictures of the feeding we got to watch up close and personal.  We were about 3 feet away while one of the employees took out some kind of fairly large lizard (a Ruta?  Guta?  something like that) and fed him/her a bunch of dead rats.  Sweet.

 

We also didn’t get any good pics of their King Cobra.  Apparently, it is Canada’s Largest Venomous Snake, which is amazing because Canada is well-known for their tropical snakes.

 

Anyway, Reptilia is a great place for critter-lovers in or around Toronto.  Lots of fun, and they keep it nice and warm in there (which was much-appreciated).

And the price is pretty fair too.  It was less than $30 (even after Canada’s consumer-raping sales taxes) and their staff is very courteous and knowledgeable.

So, for any people in Canada who are still thawed enough to read this, head on over to Reptilia, and tell them Myrtle Beach Website Designer sent you!

Even though they don’t know who I am…

Ripley’s Aquarium – Look What We Did!

As we’ve talked about in an earlier post, Bingles and I are members of Ripley’s Aquarium, which is at Broadway at the Beach in Myrtle Beach.

It is an amazing, almost surreal experience to walk through an OCEAN, and have sharks, fish, turtles, eels and rays swim over you!  We will sometimes spend hours there, just watching all the fish.

One of our favorite things is when the sea creatures actually swim up to you and look at you.  Ever have a tiger shark check you out?  If not, go to Ripley’s Aquarium!

To give you an idea of the “layout” of the aquarium, here is a promotional pic:

 

This picture is obviously at least a little silly, and no they don’t swim out at you.  But it is an accurate layout of how you are actually walking under Ripley’s Aquarium.

In reality, though, no picture can truly show what it is like to experience the Aquarium.

That said, here are a bunch of pictures:

 

We start our gallery on our best foot, with a picture of the beautiful and exquisite Bingles, posing with some of our seaborne friends.

 

This is (I believe) a Leopard shark swimming over us.  Take a minute to think about that sentence.

 

We kept trying to get a picture of Bingles with a shark swimming behind her, but the slow shutter speed of the camera wasn’t cooperating.  The best part of the pic was preserved though.

 

This is a tiger shark looking at us as it begins to swim above us.  In the top right corner, you’ll notice the nose of a sawfish.

 

Success!  Bingles is seen here with what I believe is a sawfish, which is a type of shark.  I think.

 

Ever had a shark swim up to you?  THIS EXPERIENCE IS MORE THAN WORTH THE $20 ADMISSION!

 

Here’s that same shark swimming over us.  Keep in mind, I am not zooming the camera; the shark is that close to us!

 

Here’s Bingles posing with…who cares.  Look how hot she is!

 

Two tiger sharks palling around.  On a side note, I’m not sure why the pictures are so dark.  In reality, the Aquarium is incredibly well-lit.

 

Now one of them is swimming over us.  There are about 5 tiger sharks in the Aquarium, and a few dozen sharks in total.

 

Sawfish and leopard sharks tend to lay around a lot, which seems to debunk the whole theory that sharks don’t sleep.

 

Here’s a sawfish swimming over us.

 

Here’s the turtle (or tortoise).  I don’t know what kind of turtle (or tortoise) it is.  I only know that he (or she) spends most of his (or her) time trying to eat the fake vegetation in the Aquarium, which is further validation that we are smarter than sea animals.

 

Beauty and the Beast.

 

Beauty and the Beast II.  This time it’s personal.

 

Finally, a picture of me.  This picture took almost an hour to get right, but it was well worth it. 

 

Hey baby, is that a shark behind you, or am I just happy to see you?

 

Here are a few of our swimming buddies.

 

Oddly enough, the eels are one of the most fascinating critters in the Aquarium.  Fascinating and ugly.

 

Bingles with a horseshoe crab.  What’s funny about this exhibit, the attendants spend a bunch of time explaining how much the crabs hate being taken out of the water, and then they encourage you to take them out of the water.  They have virtually no meat in their legs, so I was not terribly interested in them.  But any hands-on experience with a wild sea creature is fun.

 

Being a Myrtle Beach native, I’ve seen a lot of jellyfish.  But they’ve always been dead and washed up on the beach.  Here you can actually see them alive and swimming around.  They also shine some kind of neon light on them that makes them glow.  It’s really neat to get up close and watch these things pulsate around.  It reminds me of the Nintendo game Metroid.

 

We end our picture tour with a shot of the happy couple.  I will post more pictures as we take them, and I assure you there will be more.  We’ll get some pics of the Giant Grouper (biggest fish in the Aquarium, and very shy) as well as their Octopus (or Squid, I always forget which it is).

For now, I’ll just say that if you are in Myrtle Beach and are not deathly afraid of walking under millions of gallons of water filled with giant sea monsters that want to eat you, go to Ripley’s Aquarium!

Swimming with the Stingrays – Look What We Did!

Bungles and Bingles Posing with our New Buddies!

You asked for it, you got it! 

Finally, something we did in Myrtle Beach!

As an early birthday present, Bingles brought me to Ripley’s Aquarium, which is in Broadway at the Beach, to experience something that the Aquarium just started offering: The Ripley’s Stingray Experience!

Bingles and I are members at the Aquarium, and we go there several times a month, so I wasn’t surprised when we went.  But once I got there, and she showed me a picture of a smiling family swimming with stingrays and baby sharks, I was PSYCHED!

**PLEASE NOTE – THE RIPLEY’S STINGRAY EXPERIENCE IS COMPLETELY SAFE!  THE STINGRAYS ARE DE-BARBED, AND THE SHARKS ARE VERY SMALL!  NO ONE HAS EVER BEEN HURT AT THE EXPERIENCE**

Anyway, the Experience was just indescribeably awesome!  Before the actual swim, we were taken around the Aquarium for a “behind the scenes” tour.  It really gave us a new dimension of understanding and enjoyment for when we go to the Aquarium.

Oh, for those who don’t know, Ripley’s Aquarium is not just a regular aquarium.  It is set up so you can actually walk through tunnels where you are surrounded by the water (and the creatures in it).  Go to their website for more info.

So, once the behind the scenes tour was done, it was time to suit up and get in the stingray tank!  Here are a bunch of pics:

When you're with the rays, they come up to your hand and suck on it. This is because we are dressed the same as the people who feed them, so they are trying to get the food. Unfortunately, we aren't allowed to feed them.

There were many types of Stingrays, as well as baby sharks. For some reason, they didn't get any pics of the sharks, but that was my favorite part.

What's amazing is how social these guys are. After all the bad press with the Steve Irwin incident, these poor things got a bad rap as being aggressive or, at best, standoffish. That couldn't be farther from the truth. They loved us!

In this pic, I'm petting Frankie the Spotted Eagle Stingray. He was Bingles' favorite, and she makes sure to say hi to him whenever we go back.

Bingles pets a cow-nosed stingray. It's hard to see in the pics, but the rays love to come up behind you and tickle your feet. We asked our guide why they did this, and she said "they just seem to like it."

At this point, it seemed that everyone in the Aquarium was watching us. People were asking us to smile and taking our pictures. I think they were trying to figure out which one of us was a celebrity.

Bingles flashes her award-winning smile while we prepare to get in the deeper waters. What a beauty!

We're actually sitting at the edge, waiting for the word to dive in...

...And we're off! Sadly, our life vests (and the natural bouyancy of the deep water) prevented us from being able to reach bottom. Our guide told us she needs to strap a 20 lb. weight to herself to be able to get to the bottom. Next time we'll wear lead underwear.

At about this point, Bingles and I wish we had brought a waterproof camera. Anyway, I hugged a bonnethead shark, and one of the rays tried to consummate his marriage to Bingles. I don't blame him.

This is a guitarfish. It's a throwback to the prehistoric era, and I got to pet it. Its shell is real hard, like armor. I want one.

Bingles and I share a deep-water kiss just before getting out of the tank.

After the swim, we got back into our clothes and did a once-around the Aquarium.  If I didn’t have to work for a living, I would try to find a way to spend all my time there!

The Ripley’s Stingray Experience was only about $80 per person, which is a great deal considering its one of the best ways possible to spend 3 hours.  It is 3 hours of pure life-altering experience!  I recommend it to anyone who enjoys sea creatures!

And for those who want to just go to the Aquarium, that is only about $20 per person, and there’s a children’s discount.  Also, South Carolina residents only pay $10 per person.  And a 1 year membership is only $50 per person.

Considering we go there almost once a week, the cost is more than worth it!

Anyway, for more info about Ripley’s Aquarium, check out their website and go there if you’re in Myrtle Beach!  You’ll be glad you did!