I haven't completely adjusted to West Coast time - I'm tired way too early by my standards (11PM or so) and up way too early for a gal on vacation. Now the time changed so maybe it'll be a little better - just in time for us to leave.
I'm behind on documenting our trip. Friday night we met Flippy and Leigh-Ann at The Chocolate Swan. I had a piece of peanut butter cheesecake, Alan had turtle cheesecake (which turned out not to have been made from real turtles, alas), Flippy had a chocolate covered raspberry but I don't remember what Leigh-Ann got - something tiny, unlike my cheesecake-pig self. We also shared some delectable truffles of various sorts; mine was creme de menthe.
Then it was on to the Orleans for a Wranglers game! They played the Gulls and lost, for which I take the blame. I wore my Thrashers sweater and they probably thought I was an NHL scout or something, because of how professional and knowledgeable I looked and all. Even though they lost, I still had a great time. I enjoyed seeing a minor-league game and it was great meeting Flippy & Leigh-Ann.
This one hard-core fan on our row was yelling some of the funniest things. Every time the announcer said, following a penalty, "And the Gulls are back to full strength!" this guy would shout, "And they STILL suck!" I don't know why I thought it was so funny - it's hardly that original - and after the first couple of times I knew it was coming, but it was still so amusing to me. Maybe simply because I was already having such a good time and was in a great mood. But it was funny.
After the game, the ladies dropped us back at the hotel. I wanted to go back out and do some stuff, gamble or something, but I was too worn out. Alan was ready for bed too, but didn't want to disappoint me by saying it. Once I admitted I was exhausted, he was "oh thank god" so we crashed.
The next morning I woke up with a terrible sinus headache and blocked nostrils but I took some medicine, went back to bed for an hour or so. The second time I woke up, I felt 1000% percent better (that extra zero isn't a typo) so we got up, cleaned up and went for an early lunch at The Noodle Shop. We had the best hot&sour soup I've had in a long time and I had some great Mongolian beef. Alan had sweet-and-sour barbecued pork.
We played a couple of slots for a little while and then went to the Shark Reef, a predator-based aquarium here at Mandalay Bay. It was interesting because we'd been to the Atlanta aquarium (the world's largest) so recently. There were things I liked more and things I liked less at the M-B one. For one thing, they did a better job with landscaping - lots of lush flowers and greenery; I remember mostly logs and moss from Atlanta. M-B also had a 'theme' for their aquarium. There were underwater temple ruins and a shipwreck the fish were swimming in and around. M-B had glass plates in the floors where you could, supposedly, see the fish swim underneath you as well as overhead, but it was so dark you could really only see fishy shadows.
Atlanta had better jellyfish. M-B had a huge tank but they were all the same, those whitish see-through jellyfish that most of us have encountered up close and personal. Atlanta had red ones and wee ones and yellow ones and purple ones. In general, there were fewer things to see at M-B and even though it wasn't nearly as crowded as Atlanta, it was a lot smaller so there was still a lot of pushing and jostling and craning to try to see. It was fun, though. Alan took a lot of pictures which I'll get up on Flickr eventually. M-B had this "audio wand" thing that seemed like a good idea, but didn't work very well for me in practice. It resembled a telephone, contained a keypad and beside each exhibit were numbers. You tapped the number in, held it to your ear and a recording told you about the fish you were seeing. However, some of the numbers were on the far side of the exhibit and it was kinda dark, so you wouldn't see it until you'd already looked at the exhibit and decided to move on. Some also had four and five numbers to one exhibit (one for each species of fish) so you'd have to stand in the same spot for a real. long. time. to hear all the info - which wasn't a problem in that we had no time constraints, but I always feel bad, like I'm being rude, in situations like that, because there are so many other people queuing up and jostling trying to see, and I'm standing there blocking them for 20 minutes.
We went out that night and, among other things, had a fabulous dinner at one of Wolfgang Puck's eateries, but this is getting long so I'll blog about the rest later.
I'm behind on documenting our trip. Friday night we met Flippy and Leigh-Ann at The Chocolate Swan. I had a piece of peanut butter cheesecake, Alan had turtle cheesecake (which turned out not to have been made from real turtles, alas), Flippy had a chocolate covered raspberry but I don't remember what Leigh-Ann got - something tiny, unlike my cheesecake-pig self. We also shared some delectable truffles of various sorts; mine was creme de menthe.
Then it was on to the Orleans for a Wranglers game! They played the Gulls and lost, for which I take the blame. I wore my Thrashers sweater and they probably thought I was an NHL scout or something, because of how professional and knowledgeable I looked and all. Even though they lost, I still had a great time. I enjoyed seeing a minor-league game and it was great meeting Flippy & Leigh-Ann.
This one hard-core fan on our row was yelling some of the funniest things. Every time the announcer said, following a penalty, "And the Gulls are back to full strength!" this guy would shout, "And they STILL suck!" I don't know why I thought it was so funny - it's hardly that original - and after the first couple of times I knew it was coming, but it was still so amusing to me. Maybe simply because I was already having such a good time and was in a great mood. But it was funny.
After the game, the ladies dropped us back at the hotel. I wanted to go back out and do some stuff, gamble or something, but I was too worn out. Alan was ready for bed too, but didn't want to disappoint me by saying it. Once I admitted I was exhausted, he was "oh thank god" so we crashed.
The next morning I woke up with a terrible sinus headache and blocked nostrils but I took some medicine, went back to bed for an hour or so. The second time I woke up, I felt 1000% percent better (that extra zero isn't a typo) so we got up, cleaned up and went for an early lunch at The Noodle Shop. We had the best hot&sour soup I've had in a long time and I had some great Mongolian beef. Alan had sweet-and-sour barbecued pork.
We played a couple of slots for a little while and then went to the Shark Reef, a predator-based aquarium here at Mandalay Bay. It was interesting because we'd been to the Atlanta aquarium (the world's largest) so recently. There were things I liked more and things I liked less at the M-B one. For one thing, they did a better job with landscaping - lots of lush flowers and greenery; I remember mostly logs and moss from Atlanta. M-B also had a 'theme' for their aquarium. There were underwater temple ruins and a shipwreck the fish were swimming in and around. M-B had glass plates in the floors where you could, supposedly, see the fish swim underneath you as well as overhead, but it was so dark you could really only see fishy shadows.
Atlanta had better jellyfish. M-B had a huge tank but they were all the same, those whitish see-through jellyfish that most of us have encountered up close and personal. Atlanta had red ones and wee ones and yellow ones and purple ones. In general, there were fewer things to see at M-B and even though it wasn't nearly as crowded as Atlanta, it was a lot smaller so there was still a lot of pushing and jostling and craning to try to see. It was fun, though. Alan took a lot of pictures which I'll get up on Flickr eventually. M-B had this "audio wand" thing that seemed like a good idea, but didn't work very well for me in practice. It resembled a telephone, contained a keypad and beside each exhibit were numbers. You tapped the number in, held it to your ear and a recording told you about the fish you were seeing. However, some of the numbers were on the far side of the exhibit and it was kinda dark, so you wouldn't see it until you'd already looked at the exhibit and decided to move on. Some also had four and five numbers to one exhibit (one for each species of fish) so you'd have to stand in the same spot for a real. long. time. to hear all the info - which wasn't a problem in that we had no time constraints, but I always feel bad, like I'm being rude, in situations like that, because there are so many other people queuing up and jostling trying to see, and I'm standing there blocking them for 20 minutes.
We went out that night and, among other things, had a fabulous dinner at one of Wolfgang Puck's eateries, but this is getting long so I'll blog about the rest later.
2 Comments:
Live vacation blogging - this is great! I read with both envy and vicarious delight.
By
Anonymous Me, at 12:28 PM
That chocolate-covered raspberry was fabulous, but now I'm eyeing that dessert that Alan had. Yum!
Nancy, wish you were here!
By
Anonymous, at 5:34 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home