52...DONE!

What: #11 Sleep overnight in an aquarium

When: June 2-3, 2018
Where: Georgia Aquarium
Why: When I was just entering high school, my family took a trip to the National Aquarium in Baltimore and I was fascinated by the idea of working in a place like that, surrounded by water and amazing creatures. Alas, that wasn't my career path, but I never got over the idea of being surrounded by water and marine animals. I have snorkeled in dozens of places, swam with dolphins, slept in an overwater bungalow for a week, and visited most of the country's top aquarium facilities. On my list for many years had been the Georgia Aquarium for two reasons: 1) Whale Sharks and 2) Adult Sleepovers!

It was an incredible 24 hours, starting with a guided tour through some of the main areas to hear more about the various animals, like sea dragons, an octopus, penguins, belugas, jellyfish, dolphins, the manta rays, and the sea turtles. After the aquarium closed to the public, we got to see the penguins walking around the aquarium for exercise outside of their enclosure and we were given access to visit the areas behind the tanks: food preparation, veterinarian rooms, the huge water pumps, and above the pools, too. We spent the whole evening and hours of the night walking around without any other visitors in the building, sitting as long as we wanted at each exhibit, and getting to talk with the staff and crew who work around the clock.

For our sleeping quarters, we were in the tunnel underneath the Ocean Voyager exhibit, where all night long I watched whale sharks, manta rays, turtles, other sharks, sawfish, and dozens of other species swim over me. It's like this, but better!

The next morning, we were up early before any visitors arrived and we got to see feedings all over the aquarium. The whale sharks still had my attention that morning, and watching these huge fish come to the surface to feed on tiny plankton was just incredible!

The aquarium eventually opened up to the public for the day, and we were given passes to all of the shows and stayed for most of our second day, but after our night of having the place to ourselves (there were only 11 of us in the aquarium all night long), it felt a bit crowded!

I'm so glad this was something I waited to do to finish off my crazy 100 Things adventure...it was a wonderful ending to these amazing years of new things!

51 done ... 1 to go...

What: #51 Change a tire

When: January 12, 2018
Where: My driveway

Why: Ahh, Michigan. Winters in Michigan can be beautiful, sparkly, sunny, bright white & blue skies, but winter can also be frozen gray slush and frigid inhospitable temperatures and huge potholes forming on innocent pavement. The latter is the day I had, leading to accomplishing this new thing on my list.

On my drive home for work, I hit a pothole that, I found out later, also had taken out about a half dozen other cars of people in my neighborhood. After lurching home the final few blocks on a flattened tire, I immediately logged on to alert the city to the problem (update: the city patched up that blasted pothole a few hours later...good deed done!). After that, I abandoned my car in the garage, and honestly somehow hoped I'd check on it later and it would magically be repaired and re-inflated. Two things happened: 1) It did not magically heal itself and 2) I did miraculously get the next day off of work and so had the whole day to solve my tire problem. I decided that I would do it myself. In the freezing cold and snow, I got out the tools I would need, most of which are conveniently included in my spare tire package in my trunk...a jack, a pry bar, a lug wrench, and the spare tire itself. Armed with the owner's manual of my car, it was actually pretty easy to do! In about 30 minutes, I had raised my car onto the jack, removed the flat tire, mounted the spare tire, and cleaned everything up. Next stop, the store to buy a replacement tire!