Sept 8
After a late night (early morning?) photographing some of the monuments we got up at ten and began to try to make some sense of the masses of freebies and purchases not to mention the rest of our luggage. A couple of pieces of fruit each and we got the car loaded up and set off by 11.30.
DC traffic was pretty heavy and the going a bit slow. After dodging the toll roads around Baltimore by going through the slow traffic in the city we decided to suck it up and go toll roads. That's not our usual way but we have time constraints today as we had to get to the aquarium in time for a 6.30 dinner.
So it was we travelled on the soul destroying freeways, principally the NJ turnpike north to NY. Having gone through the Holland Tunnel we went through a little bit of Manhattan. Traffic was horrendous especially accessing the tunnels.
By the time we went through the Mid Town Tunnel we had paid nearly $50 in tolls today :-(
Once through the tunnel traffic got even worse. It's an hour and a half from Manhattan to the aquarium, it took us four hours!!
The dinner was due to start at 6.30 pm, we got to the hotel which is next door and checked in just after seven. After the worlds quickest shower and change we were at the aquarium doors at 7.15. After calling Kevin a couple of times Joe came and let us in. The buffet and just been served so we grabbed a drink each and hit the buffet which was pretty good. There were three tables which were full so we sat at a fourth table alone which was a bit sad lol One of the guests came to say hi and we joked about sitting with all our mates! Once he returned to his table he must've said something and Joe realised we were alone and got everyone to shuffle to let us in which was much better :-)
The dinner tables were arranged so we had awesome views of the reef tank and of course most of the talk was of a fishy nature so we had a great night.
Between courses we all got taken upstairs to see the Reef Gen aquacultured frags which have greatly expanded since we were here two years ago.
Coffee and cookies was followed by my personal highlight, we got to meet Pam. Joe came through to us when we were all talking around the reef tank with Pam, the penguin under his arm. She was such a cutie and we all got to give her a pat, she's very soft :-) Joe then put her on the ledge in front of the reef tank where she stood very still, only her head moving as she watched the food, I mean the fish swim by. Deciding she'd had enough Joe put her on the floor and said come on Pam, time for bed and he walked off with her waddling along behind him, so dam cute!
A couple of manufacturers reps were at dinner and had brought Joe some lights and a massive gyre to try on the reef tank so we watched a series of different lights and pumps getting tried out which was interesting.
We finished up about 11.30, an hour later than the invitation said and walked back to the hotel to crash. Well that was the plan but Pete was hungry, he'd been too wound up after the 4+ hours of traffic jams to eat much at dinner so we ordered some room service which was very reasonably priced even taking into account we had to go down to reception to get it. Snack over we finally crashed out about 2am.
So much for MACNA's over now we can get some sleep lol