The Aquarium of the Pacific
Our trip to the LBC lead us first to the Aquarium of the Pacific. Jeff, Marleen, Terrance and I all headed up together. Marleen and Terrance dropped us off at the aquarium while they drove around visiting Marleen's old stomping ground. (She lived in Long Beach for several years.)
Coming from the public zoo and aquarium design industry I had wanted to visit the Aquarium of the Pacific for a long time. My old boss, Steve, from Lyons/Zaremba Inc. actually designed much of it before he was with LZI.
The aquarium if fairly small but was packed full of tourists celebrating "Southeast Asia Day" on Saturday. Though it was hard to navigate through the crowds, the exhibits themselves were beautiful and packed full of wildlife. I especially loved the baby shark exhibits. They had one still in it's egg sack but spliced open on the side and placed against the glass so you can see the baby shark growing inside. That was the coolest thing I saw. I also enjoyed the octopus, sea dragon and jelly fish exhibits.
Being a fish geek of sorts, I never get tired of visiting aquariums. Most of the photos came out badly, either too dark, blurry or with terrible glare but I will post a few that came out ok.
The Queen Mary
After a margarita, Jeff and I met back up with Terrance and Marleen for the real reason for our trip to Long Beach, the haunted Queen Mary. It's opening weekend for their annual month of terror at the Queen Mary Shipwreck and tickets were a steal.
Every year they convert parts of the ship into a series of mazes (six total), night clubs, food stands, live bands and entertainers. Ghouls run amok scaring visitors at every turn. For those that know me, I LOVE HALLOWEEN and all the haunted houses, scary stories and movies that go along with it. Last year I wrote about our trip to Knotts Scary Farm in the Blog.
We hit all six mazes, some were better than others but overall were quite impressive. They convert the ship's boiler room into a haunted house, which is cool because the amount of detail (twisted metal, steel and rivets)could never be duplicated in a conventional haunted house. The shear vastness is impressive. The best haunted maze went through a series of storage rooms (it was very Freddy Kruger). They staggered the groups as you entered so you get the impression of being completely alone and lost. Very scary and worth the entry fee alone. Cameras weren't allowed so I don't have any photos inside but I managed a few photos of the ship. The Queen Mary is also a hotel. I'd love to go back after Halloween to get a real tour of the ship and its history and maybe spend the night. Random fact: The Queen Mary is longer than the Titanic by 137 feet. Yikes.
