A quick visit

We met one of my son's friends from his daycare in the US today.  He was so excited.  The first words out of his mouth after waking up was asking if this was the big day.  Before our meeting, he was jumping up and down and telling me how he was going to hug her as soon as he saw her.  I had to remind him several times to settle down and stay calm.

We were standing in line, waiting for the elevator to take us up to the 9th floor when we saw them.  The girls mom waved, smiled, and shouted a greeting.  The dad did the same.  I invited them into the line and gushed about how excited we were to see each other.  But my son and their daughter stood there frozen.  It's like they had a sudden case of shyness.

By the time we reached Sunshine Aquarium, they were talked excitedly with one another and quickly grabbed each other's hand to run around and excitedly view the aquarium.  It was nice to see them revert back to their normal buddy behavior.  Since my son is now a Sunshine Aquarium expert, he led her around to all his favorite exhibits and made sure to take her to see the sharks she wanted to see the most.

We flew through the aquarium in record time.  They were both starting to jump off the walls from the excitement of the day.  As we were getting ready to leave, we noticed there was a special exhibit on the roof of the indoor area of the aquarium.  We went up the stairs to find a small petting zoo.  There was an alpaca, sheep, guinea pigs, rabbits, and capybara.  After seeing these animals, we were getting ready to leave when they asked if the kids were interested in holding an owl.  Both had calmed down enough that we thought they would do great. 

They put a glove on each kid and then gently moved the owl from their hand to the kids.  Both kids were so calm and did wonderful holding the owl.  After their turn, they were allowed to pet the owl.  It was unbelievably soft!  What a great experience for both of them.

The rest of the day flew by just as the morning had.  We had lunch, watched the fountain dance to music, and did a bit of shopping. 

When it came time to say goodbye, the kids had a rough time departing.  They weren't making a scene.  They just wanted to keep playing together.

Once on the bus, my son was wistful, already missing his friend.  It is so fun to see his friends, but so hard to say goodbye again.  I totally understood his feelings and just held him as we rode. 

He stayed on his emotional roller coaster throughout the evening.  Luckily, the night ended on a positive note when we went for a short walk (in the rain) and saw 3 huge frogs! 

I was amazed to see the palm-sized frogs jumping on the sidewalk and right next to it.  They were the biggest frogs I've ever seen out of captivity!  No wonder we can hear frogs croaking at night.  In Tokyo!  Frogs!  Who knew?