Jean Paul the Horse Shoe Crab: Sanibel Part 2

After our eco-tour of the marine sanctuary, we returned to shore for a little lecture. It is usually the lecture first and then the trip to the sanctuary, but because our tour was scheduled during high tide, the biologist decided going out first so that we could see more of the wildlife.

So when we returned, he showed us few things about the local ecology, such as the shrimp, the mussels, and the horseshoe crab. There was a little aquarium where there a small horse shoe crab was swimming around and the biologist lifted him up so that we could touch its shell. Allaman loves to name everything (including the cars. Our new Tribeca is named Rebecca.). She he asked rather innocently what the horse shoe crab's name was. The biologist looked at him as if he was crazy, but then decided to call him Jean Paul.

What's funny was that later on, he showed us a starfish, which he said was named Patrick. And he looked at me pointedly. I don't particulary care what you name the animals in this little tub, but he apparantly thought that I did. Why he didn't look at Allaman is a bit beyond me. I mean, he's the one who wanted to know what the horse shoe crab's name was. And by the way, the shell of the horse shoe crab feels pretty much like the shell of the crabs you eat on your dinner table. And horse shoe crabs have a lense in front of their eye, which is how people got the idea of contact lenses.

I also discover later that Patrick is the name of the starfish on Spongebob Squarepants. How was I supposed to know that? Do I look like I watch a spastic ADD show like that?

Shup up! I so don't watch it!

So after we passed around Patrick and molested poor little Jean Paul, we moved on to looking at the shell of a dead sea turtle. Except that Chris and Allaman weren't all that interested in this section. Instead, they continued to watch Jean Paul rage all around the little tank.

"Jean Paul Angry!" Chris said.

"Jean Paul Smash!" Allaman said.

"Don't make me wedge myself under this rock!"

"Don't think that I won't!"

I started to giggle and I could see that the biologist just wanted us out of there. It's got to be hard to deal with hooligans like us.