My youngest brother, Augie, had recently gone through one of his phases, from liking cars and truck to the aquarium and volcanoes. All he could talk about nonstop was the aquarium and all the different kinds of magical underwater creatures there were to see. My family and I decided enough was enough, and this child needed to go to the see this infamous aquarium so we ventured over to the Aquarium of the Pacific.

It was a perfect day to visit the aquarium, clear skies, not a patch of smog in sight and a light breeze rustling through the palm trees. By the time we arrived at the aquarium, Augie was bubbling with excitement and joy, hardly able to contain himself. We explored the many exhibits, admiring the colorful fish and staring in awe at the sharks still in their embryonic sacs. Once we had seen all there was to see inside the aquarium it was almost lunchtime, so we headed out to the outdoor exhibits to have lunch.

Being the efficient mother she is, my mom packed each member of my family an individual sack lunch. We took our lunches over to the empty arena seats in front of the seal and otter tank. Augie, my mom, Dam (my twin brother) and I sat down and eagerly opened out lunches to find each of our favorite treats and sandwiches as my dad continued to wander around looking at the animals. Two other families seemed to have the same idea as we did and they plopped themselves down on the cement benches as well.

As we all began to eat our lunch, I suddenly realized a large amount of pigeons were starting to surround the arena and coming alarmingly close to our food. Everyone else seemed to realize this and soon it became a shooing frenzy and a fight to keep our lunches in our hands. One pigeon tried grabbing Augie’s sandwich out of his hand to which he shrieked and pulled away. Another tried walking off with my whole sack lunch until I yanked it away. The thought of all these dirty pigeons being so close to our food was a tad repulsing and most certainly a health hazard, so my mother and the rest of us gathered up our belonging and the rest of our food and got out of there as fast as we could.

After finishing our lunches on a bench in a quiet corner, free of birds, we continued enjoying the outdoor tanks and exhibits. The day was very enjoyable, so enjoyable in fact, that we became members of the Aquarium of the Pacific. The moral of that day was that where there are animals, there are vermin birds, and they will do whatever they have to get your food. Augie and I both learned that pigeons are ruthless and we will never try to eat lunch in front of the seal tank again.