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Who
am I? - cimmy Favorite places to visit www.televisionwithoutpity.com |
5/16/2005 ...did someone say... (cont.) H
A P P Y Saturday--be ready at 8:30 a.m. READY! We get in the car and actually I think we're going to go down to San Diego to Sea World, which sounds great. Laura says I should be blindfolded...I'm game, but all they way to San Diego??!! So I put the hood of my sweatshirt over my head and we're off. I know we got on the 5 south, but beyond that I wasn't really paying attention. We get off the freeway much sooner than I expected so I'm sure we're not going to SD. It feels more like Disneyland...or Long Beach? "I already seen the [Long Beach]" We pull into a parking structure and I take the hood off and...well...we're back at Long Beach...so, I'm guessing we're going to the aquarium, which is totally great with me...that's what I suggested! We go over and pick up our tickets and Linda has to run an "errand" so Laura and I walk around the docks for a while then go into the aquarium without Linda (don't worry, she'll catch up!) First Laura and I go into the gift shop and poke around a bit. You know, for some reason at places like this I'm drawn to those really big pencils...you know the ones that are like a foot long and really fat, why is that? What is it about tourist places that makes you think you need that? Weird. I resisted. Laura offered to get it for me, thanks Laura! First on the list; The Sea Jellies Gallery Did you know that a jellyfish has no heart and no brain? How does one stay alive without vital organs to keep you going?! This is just AMAZING to me! One tank had thousands and thousands of baby jellyfish...literally, thousands...Laura, Linda, am I wrong? Then we went to the Life in Darkness exhibit There were these amazing fish. I think they were called "flashlight fish" (I just looked it up...Eyelightfish) because they have these pockets under their eyes and they can make them glow BLUE and turn them off and on. Turn them on and a predator comes toward you then turn them off and dart away. Brilliant! Then Linda finally came back and we had to show her the cool stuff we'd already seen. Then it was time to go somewhere else. WHAAAAA? I'm not ready, I haven't seen everything yet! I was worried. We grabbed a bite to eat before we had to go and I had to make sure with them that we could come back, because I AM NOT DONE HERE! Guess where we went! Just guess! You'll never guess. A behind the scenes tour! Yep, we got to go behind the scenes and see the animals that were in quarantine and the ones that were new and not in the exhibits yet and see the big tanks full of sharks and sea turtles and fish from above. We got to feed the fish, too. And we touched some sea anemones and star fish! We saw these fish that can spit water up to 5 feet with deadly accuracy. They prefer to eat bugs, so they sit in the water and when they see something fly by or land on something near them they'll spit water at them knocking them into the water making mealtime! COOL! Lunchtime! After lunch hehehehe, I find it ironic that I ate a fish taco at the aquarium, LOL, we ran through all the other inside exhibits and then went outside to the Lorikeet cage. We bought some of the food hoping to get to feed some of them. I was a great success, at one point having 3 of them on my arms. Linda and Laura also got to feed some! Great fun. Then over to the petting pools where I pet SHARKS and STING RAYS! Cool! You'll be interested to know that sting rays have a layer of mucus (or better known as snot) on their bodies. They felt soft and slimy. The sharks felt sandpapery. OH time for the next activity. Bye Aquarium of the Pacific! Where now? "We're not telling" Off to a water taxi....to....the Queen Mary. Now, the previous day I had said that I didn't want to go to the Queen Mary...not because I thought I wouldn't enjoy it, but because I'd been there before, and what I was actually saying is that I wouldn't want the Queen Mary to be my birthday surprise. Linda had arranged for the Queen Mary ghost tour which took you to some of the places on the Queen Mary thought to be haunted. For the record, I wouldn't recommend anyone go out of their way to see this attraction, it was interesting but WAY over-priced. If you can get discount tickets it's worth it. Then we had access to the self guided tour. That frustrated me a lot, there were no signs and because the Queen Mary is now a hotel, I just kept feeling like we were bumping into guests and hotel rooms most of the time. We did finally make it up to the deck and get to see some of the displays of the captain's quarters and stuff and that was interesting. And now, off to dinner. I pick Bubba Gump Shrimp even though there's a wait and we're all exhausted. And it was a great decision! The food was really good and the service GREAT! Phew...I'm exhausted! Nitey Nite! Thanks girls! That was WONDERFUL! |
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