There's not one, but two new Lunargyros pages that went up on Tuesday.

On Monday I went on many fine adventures! My parents wanted us to do some stuff together, so we drove on down to Long Beach, where we visited the Aquarium of the Pacific and the Queen Mary, both of which are things I've never done. Despite the fact that I was sick (still sort of am) and it was rainy and cold, it was a lot of fun! Call me boring or nerdy, but I love going to zoos and aquariums. Just seeing the amazing variety of life there is on earth and learning about all the cool things animals can do gets me so excited and inspirational.

We saw most of the aquarium, and I got to pet the sharks and rays! They had some black-tip reef sharks, a little hammerhead, a sawtooth shark, and this MASSIVE ray, holy cow it was huge.

I did some sketches when I had the time, and I also stole some photos off my mom's camera.




Of course I had to sketch the seals and sea lions! There was this one seal that kept swimming back and forth between the two pools and bumping into one wall. I think we later learned that the seal was blind. 8|



One of the sea lions also kept swimming up to one corner of the tank and kind of flopping all over the glass like a dog that wanted to be pet, so I was able to see his face from really close-up. I love sea lions! Also, got a few crazy marine birds standing around on one reeeeeally long leg.



There was a diver dressed up as Santa Claus in one of the tanks talking about the giant sea bass. His beard kept getting in the way of his mask and he had to keep brushing it away. XD





Oh noes, it's a giiiiant clam!



Spiny lionfish! Those are so cool to look at. ...Although actually, looking back, I think these were called turkeyfish. Man, how much would it suck to look ALMOST like a lionfish but instead actually be a turkeyfish? Instead of getting to star in Disney movies or maul zebras, you serve as the main dish at Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's a hard-knock life for turkeyfish.





Jellyfish, aaaah! They're very pretty to look at, but man I don't like jellyfish. I'd so rather encounter a shark in the open ocean than a jellyfish. All those little spindly stinging tentacles reaching out at you? *shiver!*



*Insert obligatory Finding Nemo joke here*





Okay, these things were pretty much the most awesome things I've ever seen and they're now one of my new favorite animals. LEAFY SEA DRAGONS. They just kinda chill around seaweed while looking exactly like seaweed, except they all look like cute baby dragons. Come on, you can't get much cooler than LEAFY SEA DRAGONS. I love nature.


After the aquarium, we went across the street to eat at Bubba Gump shrimp, which I've never eaten at before. I got coconut shrimp, mmmmm. The shrimp was really good, but I don't think we got enough food for the amount it cost. (And this is coming from a person/family that generally eats small portions). Still, we got to pwn the waitress at Forrest Gump trivia rounds. Movie buff family members FTW!

Then it was a quick bus ride over to the Queen Mary! I'm not as much of a nautical buff as some of my friends, but it was fun regardless! We went on the ghosts and legends tour, which was pretty campy and Disneyland-esque in the special effects they used to simulate the "ghosts," so the family and I were LOLing through lots of it. (Then again, I'm probably spoiled by the Edinburgh ghost tours. :|) I missed seeing the ghost in the swimming pool, curses! It was fun seeing the rest of the ship too, and learning some of the historical stuff. I never knew that the Queen Mary had an alternate alias during WWII, and that she held the record of most people ever carried across the Atlantic in one trip! (16,000+, more than double the amount there were enough lifeboats for. Lucky the QM didn't pull a Titanic. :P) So yeah, it was fun!

And finally, I helped decorate a few Christmas cookies last night, as is tradition. I made a Sora cookie:



I would've made matching Riku and Kairi cookies, except there weren't any more person-shaped cookies left. And we ran out of black sprinkles, so I had to improvise on the clothes.

Usually we give these cookies away as gifts. DOES ANYONE WHO LIVES DECENTLY CLOSE TO ME WANT A DELICIOUS SORA COOKIE? o_o

Welp, it's Christmas Eve today, which means today and tonight I'll be doing stuff with the family, and then tomorrow through Friday I'll be gone for more Christmas stuff. I hope that everyone has a very happy Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. Love to you all! ♥

Drawing: Gifts and stuff

Writing: RP