Showing posts with label Las Vegas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Las Vegas. Show all posts

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

Wednesday, 24 October 2012

Vegas baby - Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat

Outside the hotel was a wildlife habitat. Of course there were flamingos!

Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat

Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat

Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat

Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat

Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat

Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat

Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat

Mary-Anne's favourite colour is purple.

Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat

Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat

Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat

Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat

Flamingo Hotel Wildlife Habitat


Vegas baby - The Flamingo Hotel

My sister and I stayed at the Flamingo Hotel as part of a package. A little worn around the edges, but a nice hotel, and centrally located. This is Barbie's our bathroom from the Go Room.
  Our bathroom

Hotel room

The first night, we wandered around the casino and found a '50's style diner. Complete with jukeboxes that played songs for a nickel. I thought they were just for show but Mary-Anne proved me wrong.

Working jukebox

We also found some shops. Featuring this unbelievable sweater. No, I didn't buy one.

Ugly Christmas Sweater

Didn't buy any of these.

Hello Kitty wine

Totally got a pink flamingo Christmas ornament. I ended up buying many ornaments, guess I'm putting a tree up this year!

Pink tree

This is more of what I expected to see. I was taking a picture of the legs, and a passing dude said, "You want your picture taken with those, right?" Sure!

flamingo09legs

Our hallway.

flamingo04hallway

The view from our room.

flamingo03room

The adults only pool. Because of the liquor being served. To our surprise, it closed at 6 at night. So Thursday and Friday, we got out of bed early in order to get our swim on. There were also hot tubs. I loved swimming in that pool, and going under the waterfalls.

flamingo05pool

If we'd had a free night, we would have totally seen this show.

flamingo12osmonds

In fact, our first night in the lobby, someone tried to give us free tickets to the show. She had passes for a variety of shows. Because I was single, she focused on me, wanted to know my salary range (I lied). We kept waiting to see what the catch was, to get free tickets. Mary-Anne caught on faster - I'd have to go to a "presentation" at another hotel about time shares. We passed on the free tickets, despite the salesperson's attempts to guilt us. We didn't have enough time to be browbeat about something neither of us had any intention of buying.