Aquarium & "Scorpion" & Queen Mary
I finally got down to the Long Beach Aquarium! Unfortunately, we went on a Saturday...meaning lots of little kids pushing in front of you. They had a lot of different animals on view, mostly in big collection tanks, where they'd have sea turtles with stingrays and other various fish. Then they'd have some smaller tanks with individual animals, like sea horses or jellyfish. I got to see some sea otters! They were a lot bigger than I thought they'd be...but I guess I'm just used to river otters. What I really liked about this aquarium was how interactive it is. There are plenty of touch pools with anemones, stingrays, sharks, crabs...lots of good stuff. Throughout the day, in the main room, they would lower sun shades over the windows and play movies on the walls about various animals. It was nice being able to stop and rest your feet for awhile, especially since the movies were visible from everywhere, so you weren't crowded by everyone.
By the time we left the aquarium my feet hurt, I need new sneakers desperately! Then we headed over to the Queen Mary. They have an old Russian submarine, "Scorpion", docked next to the Queen Mary so we toured her first. I don't know how they survived on those ships, I think if I had been on the Scorpian for 10 more minutes I would never have been able to avoid hitting my head. It was kinda funny watching everyone trying to get through the absurdly small hatchways though.
Then we went to the Queen Mary, just in time for the Ghosts & Legends tour. Let me just say, you should bring a bottle of wine on this tour...it will go well with all the cheese. It started out pretty creepy with black light introduction, almost pitch black hallways, but then turned a little sour with a homemade video a little on the Twilight Zone level. We got taken to an original pool in the middle of the ship, it was very pretty, with pearlized tiles and a balcony all around it. Where they proceeded to cut the lights and fill the pool with fog and turned on an audio of a little girl laughing spookily. Combine that with a gate that opens seemingly by the little girl ghost and you've got yourself a completely nonbelievable spectral event! But really, despite the hokey nature, it did get a little creepy at times...the dark walkways through historic surroundings give you amazing atmosphere.
After the tour, we got to go wandering around the decks and got some great views of Long Beach. We stumbled upon an old saloon bar that had an enormous fireplace with a mural over it. It just sucked that it was too dark in the room to take any good pictures. Then we got to limp home...or really to Chik Fil A.
My mom's side of the family had a picnic in the park on Sunday. I got to play Bocce (a game kinda like bowling & horseshoes combined) for the first time in about 15 years. Daly and I came from behind to beat my mom & Lisa, my second cousin (I think), 21-20. So, with all that said:
By the time we left the aquarium my feet hurt, I need new sneakers desperately! Then we headed over to the Queen Mary. They have an old Russian submarine, "Scorpion", docked next to the Queen Mary so we toured her first. I don't know how they survived on those ships, I think if I had been on the Scorpian for 10 more minutes I would never have been able to avoid hitting my head. It was kinda funny watching everyone trying to get through the absurdly small hatchways though.
Then we went to the Queen Mary, just in time for the Ghosts & Legends tour. Let me just say, you should bring a bottle of wine on this tour...it will go well with all the cheese. It started out pretty creepy with black light introduction, almost pitch black hallways, but then turned a little sour with a homemade video a little on the Twilight Zone level. We got taken to an original pool in the middle of the ship, it was very pretty, with pearlized tiles and a balcony all around it. Where they proceeded to cut the lights and fill the pool with fog and turned on an audio of a little girl laughing spookily. Combine that with a gate that opens seemingly by the little girl ghost and you've got yourself a completely nonbelievable spectral event! But really, despite the hokey nature, it did get a little creepy at times...the dark walkways through historic surroundings give you amazing atmosphere.
After the tour, we got to go wandering around the decks and got some great views of Long Beach. We stumbled upon an old saloon bar that had an enormous fireplace with a mural over it. It just sucked that it was too dark in the room to take any good pictures. Then we got to limp home...or really to Chik Fil A.
My mom's side of the family had a picnic in the park on Sunday. I got to play Bocce (a game kinda like bowling & horseshoes combined) for the first time in about 15 years. Daly and I came from behind to beat my mom & Lisa, my second cousin (I think), 21-20. So, with all that said: