A Penguin Encounter

Have you ever seen a penguin up close and personnel? Have you ever wanted to touch one? Ditto. They seem like such fun birds. We have even "dedicated" a bathroom to the penguin. Ok, we may have taken our interest a bit too far, but after "March of the Penguins" we decided they were way too cute to ignore. Today we took our interest one step further. While visiting the aquarium in Newport, KY we paid for the opportunity to do a behind the seen tour to learn more about penguins. The tour begin with a brief introduction to the "rules" of the encounter. Next we entered a room that one would have thought would have been cold. It was warm. Our guide explained to use that we were about to be introduced to African penguins. Okay - African penguins???? I didn't know there were African penguins. While one of the guides brought around Paul, Randy or Simon for us to pet (hey American Idol fans, you have got to visit Newport on the Levy), the other guide told us more about our "family" of penguins. They were dry and friendly, although a bit jealous. Several wanted more attention from us than others. Their feathers were very "tight" and dry, not oily like I expected. They were very playful. It was a wonderful opportunity to learn more about penguins and a portion of our ticket price went to penguin research. Click here to learn more about the African penguin.