Monday 12 November 2012

Mandalay Bay Aquarium

Yeah, I know, I'm way past due on posting Las Vegas pictures. Sometimes there are just so many to go through!

Once we had set the date, my sister and I started thinking of what we wanted to do in Las Vegas. I decided to look up aquariums, and discovered there was one at the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino. That went on my To Do list. Mary-Anne likes mermaids and aquariums too, so that's where we went on Tuesday morning.

I'd never ridden a monorail before, but we ended up taking two to get to the hotel. It was quite a hike through the hotel but we persevered and got there.

Well worth the trip.
Mandalay Bay Aquarium

The first levels of the aquarium had reptiles and some fish.
Mandalay Bay Aquarium

Komodo dragon.
Mandalay Bay Aquarium

Mandalay Bay Aquarium

Mandalay Bay Aquarium

Mandalay Bay Aquarium

Mandalay Bay Aquarium

Mandalay Bay Aquarium

Mandalay Bay Aquarium

Whoever thought of putting tunnels through aquariums is a genius.
Mandalay Bay Aquarium

Mandalay Bay Aquarium

Imagine this being part of your work day - diving through an aquarium.
Mandalay Bay Aquarium

Mandalay Bay Aquarium

Mandalay Bay Aquarium

There was a touch tank. These guys are rubbery.
Mandalay Bay Aquarium

Mary-Anne said this was a Star Wars creature. It does remind me of the Millenium Falcon.
Mandalay Bay Aquarium

Lionfish! It was hanging like this, I did not forget to rotate the photo.
Mandalay Bay Aquarium

Mandalay Bay Aquarium

Mandalay Bay Aquarium

Mandalay Bay Aquarium

In the latter part, there was a huge shark reek in a tank. I decided that when I win the lottery, I will build an impressive aquarium, and it will be built in such a way to make the fish very easy to photograph, without glare on the glass.
Mandalay Bay Aquarium

Mandalay Bay Aquarium

Mandalay Bay Aquarium

I had a lot of fun playing with my bounce flash and trying to get great pictures. There was another tunnel through the reef.
Mandalay Bay Aquarium

Mandalay Bay Aquarium

We saw other people trying to get photos with sharks in the backgorund. Mary-Anne suggested that she sit in the tunnel and I just experiment and see what I got. She never looked behind her, she just looked around.

She had no idea this was there.
Mandalay Bay Aquarium

My favourite.
Mandalay Bay Aquarium

I really, really loved this experience.
Mandalay Bay Aquarium

Of course we stopped in the gift shop. I had to have this glass seahorse. The clerks wrapped it in many layers of bubble wrap for the flight home, and it arrived perfectly intact.
Glass seahorse

Friday 2 November 2012

Halloween and Kitties

Because I don't know when my windows are being replaced, I didn't go batshit crazy decorating for Halloween. I went for "friendly" and "charming" and "please please please come to my house I've lived in apartment buildings for so long and I've never trick-or-treaters living on my own ever so please come here I have candy".

Halloween 2012

On the window ledge are little dollar store LED lights and decorations. I went to Vegas earlier this month, that's where my money went. :-)

That white window screen I made this summer really stands out at night. Did not know that. At least it will be replaced, hopefully soon.

I also hung a battery-lit paper lantern from my mailbox and placed a cheerful dollar store pumpkin on the steps, to show that I welcomed trick-or-treaters. And I had to have a cat decoration too!

Halloween 2012

I got off the bus at 6 and was dismayed to see there were already trick-or-treaters so I quickly hustled home and turned on all the lights.

And lo, the trick-or-treaters came. The very first one was a toddler in a bear suit who tried to enter my house, he wasn't entirely sure why he was there.

There were about 30? In the space of three hours. In my initial excitement I was very generous with the treats, then started rationing them to one treat per child. Especially if the child was old enough to sport peach fuzz, and/or his voice has changed. Some of those boys were taller than me!

When it was 9:19 pm, I'd just had one more trick-or-treater, and I was down to four tootsie roll pops. The novelty had worn off. I turned off the lights and went upstairs for a bath.

What did I dress up as? I was initially going to do a very casual Star Wars fan. That morning I spotted my Soft Kitty hoodie and went a different way. I drew some whiskers on my face and I was a kitty.

Halloween 2012

And then I pretended to be a 15 year old girl on MySpace five years ago.

Halloween 2012

The cats were not impressed with this strange-people-coming-to-the-door nonsense. Chloe stayed upstairs the entire time. Hermione ran around the house, especially whenever the doorbell rang or someone knocked on the front door. Charlie was grumpy because he was trying to nap, while these hooligans kept coming to the front door and making noise.

In quieter times:
Kitties!

Kitties!

Sometimes I get to sit in that chair too. :-)