Okay, so I love Vesak Day!
Vesak Day is the public holiday celebrated by Buddhists. It commemorates the birth and enlightenment of Buddha (Siddhartha Gautama) and his entry into Nirvana. Vesak Day is known informally as "Buddha's birthday".
Why do I love Vesak Day? I love it because on this particular day, Steven didn't have to go into work!
We decided to leave the house early (9:30 am) and go to Underwater World at Sentosa. Underwater World is Singapore's aquarium.
We took a cab to Sentosa. Just more convenient that taking the train to Vivo City and then taking the monorail onto the island of Sentosa. This was our first trip to Sentosa.
While we have seen the beach in Singapore from a distance, we haven't really been to the beach here yet. I've heard that most people go to Sentosa for the beach. Sentosa has beaches and resorts. They also just opened a new Universal Studios on the island in the last month or so.
When we arrived at Underwater World, we walked along the beach across the street for a while first. People were out playing volleyball on the beach. It was nice to be at the beach, especially as a family on a Friday.
We all really enjoyed Underwater World. It wasn't as large as Chicago's Shedd Aquarium, but there were many neat features. There were stations where you could reach in the water and touch the fish. There were also stations where you could feed the stingrays and some sharks.
We saw many large and unique fish and sea creatures. See the picture of the Japanese Giant Spider Crab. Ewwww! We also saw part of a dolphin show. (It was too hot to be outside at the show for long.)
My favorite part of Underwater World was the underwater tunnel. An 83-meter long travelator moves through the tunnel made of 6 cm thick glass. We found out that the thickness of the glass made the fish, stingrays, sharks, and other creatures appear 30% smaller than they actually are. Wow! They already seemed so large! We also saw a dugong. (See the picture below, which we didn't take but pulled from the internet.)
On our way out of the aquarium, Brandon and Steven took the opportunity to be kings of the snakes. My two men are very brave! I only briefly touched one with the very tip of my finger.
We left Sentosa today without stopping to see any other sights. There is a butterfly garden that I really want to see, but we try to do a little bit at a time. We will be back to Sentosa, and none of us want to overdo it in the heat.
This evening, we went to Tanglin Mall for dinner. Poor Brandon got a boo boo while we were there! His little pinky got pinched in the escalator. After the bleeding stopped, we bandaged it up with some medicine. Poor baby keeps holding up his whole hand. It hurts! I guess it's a good time for Mommy and Daddy to start kissing the boo boos. :(
Steven and I talked to Marcia, Dan, Caroline, Gabby, and Grandma and Grandpa B this evening. It had been so long since we have seen the Ayalas. They are down at Grandma and Grandpa's for Memorial Day weekend. Jeremy, Jen, Adam, and Zach are headed down to Indiana too for the weekend. It's usually our annual family Michigan weekend. We really miss hanging out with family this weekend at home. Hopefully, we can all talk more on Skype this weekend while everyone is in New Albany!
