Friday was my birthday... quarter of a century, in fact! Todd got me a new camera and gave it to me a few days before my actual birthday. Friday I went to work; I debated taking off but decided not to. It was a pretty easy day since my classroom was already cleaned out for the year. It was also the last day scheduled for students which was a pretty great birthday gift in itself. :) The art department went out for lunch at Panera and I stayed true to my low carb diet. :) After school, the staff had a happy hour at Fridays. I went to that as well but only got a water because Todd was going to make me dinner later!
Todd made me bacon cheeseburgers last year for my birthday. He burned the bacon or something because the house filled with smoke. (He is never going to live that one down!) This year, he did bacon cheeseburgers again but he added an egg on top since I love the Royal Burger at Red Robin.
Looks tasty, right? During dinner we watched the newest episodes from the Glee Project. Funny how I like the Glee Project but not Glee.
That night, Todd and I just spent around the house relaxing which was really nice. In the morning, Todd went to a movie and I cleaned because some friends are coming over in a few days(!!!) Saturday night we went to the Melting Pot with some friends for a fancy dinner. Todd and I arrived early so we just played with my new camera and took a short walk.
The top photo is without flash. It's blurry because it's impossible to hold the camera perfectly still while it absorbs all the light in the room. (I think I need a portable tripod!) The photo below that is with flash. Much harsher. So like I said, the rest of the night I didn't use flash. I couldn't take any photos of people or things that moved because they just turned out totally blurry. Food is still so I took quite a few pictures of that!
We started out with the Spinach Artichoke cheese fondue and then moved on to salads. Todd and I did not stick to our diet for this meal!
The main course was shrimp, pork, chicken and steak/beef. We also splurged and got a lobster tail which was so yummy! Next time (when we go back in a few months, not any time soon), we plan on getting the seafood meal. The Melting Pot had gotten new plates that looked like palettes. Each space on the palette held each dipping sauce perfectly.
For dessert, we got the Flaming Turtle. The cashews were sugar coated and stirred in the chocolate. It was delicious! It was so good that Eric dipped a bowl in the fondue pot and drank from it and Liz stuck a straw directly into the chocolate pot! My favorite were the strawberries and the rice krispie treats.
When Becky made the reservations, she mentioned to the Melting Pot that it was my birthday. I was greeted at the table with balloons and a box of chocolate for melting at home! After the dinner, we got complimentary photos. It was really nice!
I got the piece with the cute bee. I also appreciated how the lettering looked like it was written in blood. Todd chose lemon filling because we had lemon cake at our wedding. How thoughtful! Although we were all stuffed from dinner, we all managed to add a few more bites of cake to our stomach that night.
There is a large pool of water inside that you can see from all the levels, including below ground level. It had about four types of rays, a tiger shark and a turtle named Calypso. The aquarium was able to keep Calypso because she is missing her left fin. Otherwise, they wouldn't be allowed to have her since she is endangered. Towards the end of the tour, we were able to watch them being fed by the scuba divers! I wasn't able to get a good photo of Calypso because she moved a lot and kept to the dark areas of the pool.
This eel was really freaky. It reminded me of the eels from the Little Mermaid.
The top level was like a huge greenhouse. It was styled like the rainforest and was covered by a giant glass roof. They had birds, sloths, turtles and snakes up there, just to name a few.
The bottom level were sharks. You walked down a ramp that winded round and round. The whole time, you were surrounded by a giant shark tank. The sharks were swimming around you as you walked!
We watched a quick dolphin show that gave us a sneak peak at the dolphin tricks. Then we went to the featured exhibit called Invasion of the Jellies. They had this awesome installation! My mom said it reminded her of my Senior Show.
I loved the jellyfish installation! I got some really great photos (I think, anyways). This was when I really wished I had a backup memory card!