Returning to Normalcy: SEA Life Experience

Raise your hands if you knew COVID-19 was going to stick around this long? (I’m trusting that you’re honest) Well truthfully, my answer is heck no!
I figured this virus would come and go, like everything else that we face in this would.

Six months down the road, guess what? It.is.still.here…

I finally had to realize that we cannot hide at home forever. We have to begin returning to some form of normalcy. My son, Korbin’s birthday was one of those things.

About two months ago, I began tossing ideas around on what I would like to do for his big fifth birthday. I was not quite set on any particular thing, but I knew I wanted him to have all of the fun he could.

Then, the number of COVID cases began to rise, and it freaked me out. My son has Asthma, and anytime that he gets sick, it is ten times worse.

I still knew I wanted to do something for his birthday.

Too afraid, I decided we would hang out with family at home and go swimming. In my opinion, playing it safe was the best option; my mom was not on board.

She wanted to do something fun since she and my other peeps are from out of town. They do not get to visit Dallas often. I wanted to stay home doing my civil duty and reduce the amount of traffic outside.

My game plan got overruled and off to SEA LIFE aquarium we went.

We looked up tickets online and selected a time that we could go. I loved this idea because it limited the number of people who could be in the aquarium at once. There was only one problem; the aquarium is inside Grapevine Mills mall.

The mall is the ONE place I have avoided. The thought of people walking around in an enclosed space freaked me out. Yet, there we were, waiting to go into SEA LIFE.

While we killed some time, I noticed quite a few things.

For one, there was a family of five, three children, and their parents. The dad had his mask pulled down, mom had hers hanging around her wrist, and the two oldest children did not have one at all. Why not comply with the rules to keep everyone safe?

The lines at some of the stores were extremely long; some stores only let in twelve to fifteen customers in at a time. Were those new shoes or pants inside the store worth standing in line for 30 mins? Probably not.

Both athletic stores, Nike and Under Armour had lines trickling down the walkways outside the stores, I could not believe my eyes.

Come to think of it; I’m amazed, so many people were out. If everyone is experiencing financial struggles due to the pandemic, where are the funds coming from? Maybe I’m doing something wrong because even without the pandemic, times are hard.

Overall, the experience at SEA LIFE was fun. There were so many cool fish displayed, we learned a lot, and the whole set up was pretty cool. The few other people inside at the same time as we kept their distance and masks on even though no one was closely monitoring them.

My family had a great time, most importantly, the birthday boy enjoyed himself. I would recommend everyone begin doing things as usual for the sake of our mental well being, but safely, of course!

As a quick reminder, PLEASE WEAR YOUR MASK!