Aquarium Penguin ‘Signs' a Pacific Visions Steel Beam

It's the final beam going into the upcoming addition to the Long Beach aquatic institution.

What to Know

  • Aquarium of the Pacific
  • Long Beach
  • The new wing is set to open in spring 2019

Ever worked for a full-on construction project, the building of something new and great and future-looking and important to the community?

Maybe it was a multipurpose neighborhood center, or a playground inside the local garden, or a skyscraper, even.

Whatever the coming-together project was, you may have gotten the chance to sign a wall, or another important feature, all to say you somehow played a part, or would play a down-the-road role, in what is being constructed.

People, for the most part, do the signing in such cases, but a Magellanic Penguin enjoyed the opportunity to leave his inimitable signature upon a steel beam at the Aquarium of the Pacific on Tuesday, Jan. 30.

It's the last steel beam to be placed in the new Pacific Visions wing, which is due to open at the Long Beach destination in the spring of 2019. The "Aquarium's first major expansion" was announced in the spring of 2016, and the groundbreaking occurred in early February 2017.

Exciting stuff, so it is no surprise that staffers would ask Admiral Fancypants to take a few minutes out of his busy schedule to join the hallowed proceedings.

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The admiral was not handed a pen nor a quill, if you're wondering, but rather used his wonderful webbed feet to leave a very blue and lasting impression on the heavy girder.

"Bird on a Girder" may be the title of his memoir one day, but that isn't yet confirmed.

And, yes, the humans working tirelessly and creatively on the new addition, which will include the 300-seat Honda Pacific Visions Theater, also enjoyed the important moment, and left their signatures on the steel beam as well.

But will Admiral Fancypants attend the opening of Pacific Visions in just over a year's time?

He may want to check out that huge theater, or the Changing Exhibit Gallery, or one of the other aquatic-themed amazements that will be found within the building, which will boast a design that summons to mind the curve and flow of a wave.

The penguin can check his 2019 schedule at his leisure, while we non-penguins eagerly await the opening of Pacific Visions, and ponder just where, in the science-wonderful structure, the blue footprints of Admiral Fancypants might be located.

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