Earlier this morning, Jr. and me realized that the fish tank needed cleaning. She volunteered to help. So we started. 30 minutes into the thing when we were cleaning the gravel, a sharp stone (which had been recently added to the tank by Mommy and the little one) came and hit the glass and the tank broke!
Given the fishes were all in a small bucket and all the cleaned parts were all over the bathroom floor, we had to act quick. So went with the kids to the local Petco and got a new tank.
The kids agreed to come with me to Petco on one condition. They get to go shopping for what goes inside the tank as well. The replacement tank was 15 bucks. They shopped for ornaments and plants for another 50 bucks! Given this tank was bought during 4th of July in 2005, thought it was time to give the fishes some new furniture!
The old tank has seen its share of ups and downs, and we now have 6th generation fishes living in the tank.
We now have the new tank all setup and the fishes are exploring their new decor. Hope they like it.
They were talking among themselves about Yoga theme in the house and thought they had picked a Buddha. At the counter, they told me "no appa. it is Zen Girl ! that is why we picked it!"
Zen girl looks pretty good to me!
Had other plans for the day. Go biking with kids, get some sun, etc. This turned out to be equally exciting.
We spent a day and a half in Casinos on the recent Vegas trip. Given we went with kids and one adult who downright refuses to enter places with Cigarette smoke (me), it was a tough call.
So we played it safe and walked through the main streets within these Casino's.
First we went to the Venetian. San and me are visiting this place after 15 years. Our first observation was that the Gondola ride price went from 5 bucks to 20 which is not proportionate to the 2x every 10 years rule. The Casino's always win, even when it comes to Gondola rides.
The interior was mind blowing for the kids. They have not seen anything like this in their lives. They were very very impressed.
Then we went to Paris Paris and did a bunch of things. All those got overshadowed by bumping into (literally for me) actor Prabhu Deva. After that the conversation stayed with the actor for another hour or so!
Lunch was at the Rainforest Cafe in MGM! We had a reservation and we barely made it. The smoke filled air on the way to the restaurant within the Casino made me lose my appetite. Fortunately, I sat next to a blower of some kind which helped recirculate fresh air in the corner of the restaurant.
The food was simple and good! The ambience was great (except for the smell of smoke that would not go away). There were aquariums everywhere and the fish in the tank were gorgeous..
Later that afternoon we spent some time walking in the strip to get sunlight. Then there was the M&M store! It was great fun for the adults and kids! We need a store like this in the bay area. We have 4 regular potential customers lined up in our house already.. They let you make your own mix of M&M's, that too with rare colors. I was a kid again for an hour running around with the kids grabbing select colors.
We had another 4 hours to spend before catching the Illusions Magic show! Took a tram to the Mandalay bay and saw the Shark Reef. Given that we have been to way too many zoos and aquariums where we go through a tunnel where sharks swim overhead, this one was not the best but they did have a few nice exhibits like the Piranah's and Giant sea turtles..
The first few exhibits were "meh".. there were crocs, lizzards, snakes and a Komodo dragon that looked like it needed CPR. We lowered our expecations and that helped for the remaining 30 minutes as we walked through the other exhibits.
Apparently it is not okay to put more than 40 of these toothy fishes in one tank. They were eating live goldfish when we were there.. This is the first time someone actually explained Piranahs to us. Apparently they are exaggerated in the movies.. they are not always that hungry!
The shark tank itself was nice. Not the largest we have seen but they had three large Sawfish and a giant turtle. (could not get pictures of them because they were in the far end of the tank and very shy)..
It was a challenge taking pictures in the dark and the 5D Mark ii still does a great job in low light!
They also had red and green florescent jelly fish and some gorgeous lionfish.
Then there was the magic show, "The New Illusions"! Jan Rouven was amazing. The escape acts he did really make us sit on the edge of our seats and go "how the hell did he do that!" We did not realize that 90 minutes flew by. It was that entertaining. I wanted to get a picture with him after the show but the kids were hungry and we wanted to get back to the hotel for dinner. So we raced back to the parking lot.
The next day we spent half a day at Circus Circus at the arcade area. The kids tried their hand at various games and mostly did not win anything. The adults played a game or two and won things for the kids. The circus acts in the center of the arcade were good and entertaining.. but again, the villain.. smoke! There was a gambling area right beneath the arcade. Wish they had put the arcade on a separate air system so the kids could be spared the smoke. . .
Given the whole Casino trips were unplanned, we still had fun!
Had to come and do Yoga back to back to get the smoke out of my lungs and the smell out of my nostrils. Between Casinos and National Parks, the family now has a clear and unanimous choice!
We spent a day in San Francisco by Pier 39 to take the kids to some place local and have some fun..
Turned out to be a great idea. So far our SFO trips have covered the usual Golden Gate bridge, Crooked street and end with Ice cream at Ghirardelli's..
There have been some deviations in the past to the tour guide routine but for once we decided to explore things we have walked or driven past. In other words get to smell the roses a bit, which was kind of a theme in the family over the last few days.
So off we went to visit the COIT tower..
The base of the tower has some amazing murals. Not posting the pictures of the murals here because they make some money selling prints. Guess that is why they have a sign that says "no flash or tripods"..
We had a nice home cooked packed lunch in our Van and went on towards Ghiardelli's, except this time we parked and went to the Maritime museum lobby and walked along the beach to see the different vessels docked at Hyde Street Pier.
The kids had fun getting on the various vessels. It was a world they had never been exposed to. It was so much fun watching their eyes widen as they read the displays and watched informational videos two levels below the deck of a cargo vessel..
There were great views of Alcatraz and Embarcadero from the ships.
The masts were majestic and we were simply awe struck by the fact that these ships with triple masts have survived the test of time and have been preserved for such a long time.
It was also fun watching the little one trying to steer the ship one handle at a time. The ship was just swaying a few feet and she wanted to control it!
It was also interesting to see how prices have changed over time!
Then we went on our walk to enjoy those things on the sidewalk and displays we usually rush past because we are on a deadline to head back to San Jose..
First we stopped at a window where a couple of bakers were doing a display..
What a display ! Truly magnificent piece of bread! They also had starfish, turtles and crab shaped bread pieces which were very impressive.
The little one had fun interacting with the guys painted in silver and dressed as robots.
We walked by the Hard Rock Cafe and past the Christmas tree at the end of the pier and went to see the Aquarium. The entry tickets were a bit steep but thanks to a AAA discount we decided to go for it. After all it was our "smell the roses" day!
The aquarium was actually worth it. Three levels of well maintained displays with more than 20,000 fishes and marine animals. It was like a compact version of the Monterey bay aquarium which also had two glass tunnels, one for shallow water fish and one for fish at deeper waters in the bay.
The last room was kind of weird. It wasn't exactly related to fishes but was about conservation and sponsored by Pacific Gas and Electric.
They had hedgehogs and
turtles and
Chinchillas which apparently poop 200 times a day. They don't look much but their display cage had more poop than food which amused the kids..
Then it was time to return to Ghirardelli's to have some ice cream and hot chocolate before returning to San Jose...
We started and ended the routine the same way but the detour was wonderful.
Next time we go there are a whole bunch of Art galleries, a Wax museum, a Ripley's Believe it or Not show , etc. etc. and we might just do another one of these wander around trips about a place that we have grown to love over the years!
The new year started with a death.. not something major but surely the elders in the family would have said "that is a bad omen".
Well, the Black Molly that lived for more than 3 years in our tank (kid you not) reached god on New Years day.
That meant a trip to the Pet store to get the last remaining fish some company. We bought a male and female Yellow mollies. The store also had a few baby black mollys which they threw in for free and the kids being kids were just thrilled to have more than one or two old slow moving fish in the tank.
As it so happened the bag with the fishes had a small snail! I never realized it.
Jr. who has very sharp eyes said "you know there is a sea snail that came with the bag. it is okay because they live in the water. our class aquarium had a sea snail". I questioned that saying "sea water is salty. this is a fresh water tank. I doubt it" and she said it was a freshwater sea snail at which point I realized that we need to fact check Jr. much like we need to fact check the Politicians in Washington. They will say whatever they have to, in order to get what they want!
Jr. pointed it out to me and this lazy thing on the bottom of the tank (smaller than a dime) did not seem to pose a threat to the fish. So I told Jr. and the little one that the snail stays till the next tank cleaning session at which point it will have to leave the tank.
Yesterday morning we went to feed the fish and found the entire walls of the tank full of black moving dots! There were hundreds of baby sea snails, if that is what they are called.
Within 24 hours some of these babies were no longer babies. they were practically the same size as the original snail and some of them started to climb the walls above the water level. Worried about a snail invasion in the house, we called the local Pet Store and the lady said "just change out the water, carefully clean everything in your tank and put it back and they will be gone"
Me : are you sure there are no microscopic eggs in the water? Am I going to be cleaning this out every alternate day?
Cust.Rep : No Sir. Just clean it out, scrub all your plants, gravel etc. and you should be fine.
So the evening was spent on cleaning, scrubbing, practically boiling the gravel in the bathroom under the hottest water available in our hot water faucet and guess what?
We put a handful of gravel back into the tank and out come two really tiny snails! Now the tank is practically empty with no decor and a few gravel stone and marbles.
The plan was to go to the store tomorrow and ask for free gravel and replacement decorations! After some internet reading it appears that there are tricks we can do with warm lettuce leaves and salt water soaking of gravel that can eliminate the problem.
Have never seen anything this scary. Saw the impact of unchecked breeding firsthand..
On the bright side, learning how to take close up videos of the fishes by using a macro lens and manually focusing on them by putting the lens practically against the glass.
Sunday, October 4, 2015 at 1:45PM ;)
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