Monday, April 27, 2009

Leaving Las Begas

Oliver calls it "Las Begas", so that's what it is for me. This is nowhere near all the pics we took...I just have to find the rest. A lot of them were lost forever because we somehow misplaced our Flip. This is one of the many things we lost on this trip, which makes the pics we have all the more precious...

There was beautiful scenery on the way down. I kept taking pictures instead of driving well. We went through a few rainstorms, but they were light and you could see them coming from far off.


I love the Cancun. The bathtub is ample, jetted and comfortable.


One day we went to the Las Vegas Natural History Museum. We were pretty much the only people there, so we took time to take pictures of everything and really get to know the place. I think we took a picture next to each physical object on the building. Here's what scientists think Adam looked like.

This is my new favorite animal, the helicoprion (from the Greek "Helicopter Pilot") that lived 250 million years ago. Scientists can't figure out if it had a bad-A spike-whip lower lip or if it was like a buzzsaw, but either way, it's pretty awesome. I'd like to keep one as both a pet and carpentry tool.



Mandi made us go on a hike in Zion's that ended disastrously. I think next time we'll go there in the summer and spend a couple days and not tack it onto an early spring Vegas trip.

I'll let Mandoo post the rest of the pics. It was a fun time, except for the end, when God decided to punish us for befouling Easter and chucked a bunch of lightning bolts made of poo at us.

31 comments:

Boy Mom said...

Las Begas is soooo fun, you have the cutest kiddos ever! Love the hiking picture, sorry it had such a disastrous ending.

Joel said...

That sea creature looks:
a) Plausible
B) Likely
and
Toast) Possible

As long as they're making stuff up for their "Museum", why not include a sculpture of a shark with an additional dorsal fin inside it's mouth in order to frighten swimmers all the more? I'm assuming they didn't include that sculpture.

Montgomery Q said...

Actually, Joel, a fun fact they've discovered about the helicopterasaurus is that it can shoot its fins at it's prey.

Joel said...

Further research into this amazing creature has revealed that it was photochromic enabling it to turn hot pink in order to blend into a surrounding stampede of women in spandex in the 1980's. This amazing adaptation came 22 million years too early.

Montgomery Q said...

And the same scientists that discovered it discovered an ancient phonograph that was played with the beak of a small bird as the stylus, similar to those seen on The Flintstones.

Montgomery Q said...

The longest shark lip ever recorded was just under a mile long.

Joel said...

Scientists speculate that the forearms of this shark were fully developed while still inside the egg, allowing the infant shark to style its hair for the "big hatching day"

Montgomery Q said...

The spiral-lipped shark had only 3 known enemies, two of which were Mary Kay saleswomen.

Joel said...

It had two hearts, one for pumping blood throughout the body and another specialized heart used exclusively to pump blood into its lower lip in order to extend it before a meal or for social events.

Joel said...

The skin of this amazing animal contained a highly potent biotoxin. It is theorized that many large contemporaries would swallow these sharks when suffering from a particularly bad headache.

Montgomery Q said...

Group of ravens=Murder

Group of bobolinks = Chain

Group of barracudas = Battery

Group of Spiral-Lip Sharks = Pungent

Joel said...

Helicoprion is a direct ancestor of the modern ladybug

Joel said...

Swarms of helicoprion were often responsible for catastrophic damage to early agricultural societies' crops. It is believed that one helicoprion was capable of consuming an acre's worth of grapes.

Montgomery Q said...

It could clean its ears with its tongue, but never bothered.

Montgomery Q said...

SLSs sometimes ate stones to help them digest their food, and the stones also helped them float the right way up.

Joel said...

"Moondreams" composer Norman Petty claims helicoprion as both inspiration and co-writer for his famous song.

Montgomery Q said...

Early cavemen police would use the shark's lips as road spikes to puncture the tires of criminals' vehicles.

Montgomery Q said...

Recently discovered caveman drawings show how best to clean the lips for cooking. The writing translates roughly to:

Use lukewarm tapwater and a whole lot of elbow grease.

Joel said...

Despite his foreboding appearance, Helicoprion was actually a really nice guy. His warm smile invited warring factions of other shark breeds to calmly set aside their differences and cooperate toward a more united prehistoric ocean.

Joel said...

Served 8 years as ambassador.

Montgomery Q said...

Can you substantiate that fact? That seemed a little iffy.

Joel said...

Helicoprion had an infrared port under each eye which was used in hunting and mating but which was easily exploited by Handheldius Clickius, the ancestor of today's remote control.

Joel's Other Sister said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joel's Other Sister said...

Little known fact: Early indications in the Helicoprion's evolution presupposed that this animal would have eventually turned into a Ginsu knife. However, it was hunted into extinction before this could take place and man had to create a synthetic Ginsu knife instead.

Wolfgang Puck has recently urged scientists to clone the Helicoprion so that this evolution could take place.

mandi said...

In its day, Helicoprion was most widely known as "The A**hole of the Sea."

Montgomery Q said...

They were found in two places: the northern and southern hemispheres.

Montgomery Q said...

The hammerhead shark is called that because his head is shaped like a hammer.

CARRIE "THE FABULOUS" said...

I am smarter as well as entertained for knowing you both!!
xo

heidi said...

I hate it when the poo lightening starts - or whatever you said. We have pics for you to re-create. I'll send them now.

Pam and Rand said...

Your trip looks fun and should have been perfect. Dang the poo lightening. Life has too many of those kind of bolts! Thanks for the sea creature enlightenment.

Cynde L. Hammond said...

Hi there!

Very funny! I especially liked the one of "Adam." You two could have been twins (not). LOL!

~Cynde
Cynde's Got The Write Stuff