Shark Guts

Yes, you read the title correct. This post will be about shark guts.

A couple of weeks ago, Stephanie and I braved the cold and rainy weather to head to Dallas for a hearty breakfast at The All Good Cafe and head to The Nature and Science Museum at Fairpark for the Shark exhibit.

The only thing I knew about this exhibit was that it included sharks and had a live dissection of a shark. Obviously, fun was going to be had by all on this awesome day.

Stephanie and I started the museum by visiting the children's portion of the museum. We learned how fast a sneeze will come out of your nose, how DNA works, and played with sound waves as well.

After a couple of hours, it was time for the shark dissection. I have been waiting for this since I first heard about it earlier in the week.

We arrived in a small auditorium and were the first ones to pick out seats and watch the cutting begin. I was filled with so much anticipation, it was somewhat embarrassing.

Once the instructor started to give his speech about different types of sharks, all I wanted him to do was the shut the hell up (his lecture ending up being interesting and educational) and cut the shark up. And just like that, my dream was about to come true.

The instructor was having a field day slicing the dogfish shark up into many parts. At one point, the instructor cut open the stomach and pulled out pieces of old undigested fish and shrimp and displayed it to the visitors like it was some kind of prize.

After he sliced and diced the shark like he was Gordon Ramsey, it was time for the audience to out on some gloves and shove our hands into that killer beast of the sea. But as we started to stand up, all of the kids jumped in the line like they were some sort of gazelle in their natural habitat.

Since the line was way too long for Stephanie and I, we decided that it would be a good idea to check out the other exhibits and come back to inspect the shark and all of its innards.

The other exhibits were very interesting to see. There were tons of shark teeth, fins, pictures of people who survived shark attacks and people who didn't. One of the most interesting things that we saw were all of the different types of shark head fossils. The teeth in some of the jaws of the shark were crazy looking. One bite from some of these sharks look liked it could rip your flesh off in a million little pieces with just one quick flinch of the jaw.

Our shark exhibit ended right in front of the shark dissection portion of the exhibit. Stephanie and I quickly grabbed a pair of gloves, told a couple of kids that there is not Santa Claus and pushed them out of the way, and got in line to feel some shark guts.

To be honest, the shark guts felt extremely slippery and gross, but bad ass at the same time. We got to touch every part of the shark that we could. Heart, lungs, pancreas, stomach, you name it, I touched it. It was awesome.

After feeling up the shark, Stephanie and I saw an IMax movie about a turtle giving tours of the deep blue see while warning us of all of the dangers sharks can be. After the 90 minute movie, we saw the Nature Museum in Fairpark and called it a day.

Visiting the shark exhibit was an awesome way to spend a rainy Saturday. We already have our next museum trip planned out: The Grossology in Fort Worth.