SeaWorld

What would a trip to San Diego be without a trip to SeaWorld…especially with how much Maria loves animals.  Today was supposed to be rainy…that’s what we heard all week.  When we woke up, we saw that it had rained overnight…and it was still sprinkling.  We figured we’d still do SeaWorld and try our best to stay dry.  Maybe the weather would keep the crowds smaller.  Well…we got there and it did rain on us as we entered…but that’s about it.  The sky cleared and we enjoyed some of the best weather of our trip. 

We arrived at the park a little after 9:00.  The facility was just opening so we kept ourselves entertained while waiting for the Sesame Street Bay of Play to open at 10:00…and the Shamu show at 11:00.  The dolphins put on a good show for us.  They were a bit surly since they hadn’t been fed yet.  They would come up to the glass and get all cute and friendly…and then whip around and try to splash you.  Funny…unless you’re holding $4000 in camera equipment that doesn’t react well to salt water baths.  Thankfully, I was able to keep my camera dry…I wasn’t as lucky, oh well.  We also checked out the Rays exhibit, posed for the cheesy Shamu picture (below) and visited the touch tank.

At 10:00 we hurried over to the Sesame Street Bay of Play area which had a large play area and a few themed rides.  It was great because the park was still pretty empty…and there were barely any people on the rides.  Maria and I enjoyed the flying Elmo fish ride…she’s so tiny that she could barely see over the edge so I’m not sure how much she enjoyed herself…at least she wasn’t scared.  Then Sarah sucked it up and did the Abby themed tea-cup ride with Maria.  Poor momma had an upset stomach afterward…no more rides for her.  (I filmed them on the ride…that’ll be posted later.)

Our next stop was the Shamu Show, “Believe”…we wanted to go get good seats that wouldn’t get us wet.  We ended up in the front row just behind the “Soak Zone”, perfect.  Maria was amazed by the show…she did her best to participate with the hand motions and squealed every time a whale jumped out of the water.  I was surprised by what the whales were able to do…I don’t remember them being able to do flips…WOW!  Watching the whales makes me ponder…while it’s sad that these animals are in captivity, how many people fall in love with Orca whales because of this experience and support their protection in the wild because of the opportunity to connect with them in an environment like this…hmmm.

After the Shamu show we had some lunch, visited the Shark exhibit and headed back for one last visit to the Bay of Play…thank goodness that we did because we were able to meet Elmo.  We unfortunately just missed Bert & Ernie…I think I might have posed with them if they had been there.  Maria was her typical shy self…but since leaving the park, she’s talked about seeing him.  Too funny.

Instead of buying the ridiculous prints that they sell you, we went to the main photo booth and bought the digital copies on a CD…that way we can print to our hearts content and share online here.  While waiting for the CD to burn we ran into Shamu walking around…you can’t tell from the image, below, but Maria was pretty excited to see him and, like Elmo, has been talking about him ever since.

After SeaWorld, we went back to the hotel for nap time…again, Maria has been amazing at pushing her nap time back on this trip…it’s made it a lot easier to not have to worry about an 11:30 nap while out exploring.  The downside is that she’s been taking LONG naps…3 hours today…which sorta killed off our evening.  So we made it a chill night…some burritos and a Coke from a bottle from a place we found on Yelp….took our food to a park in La Jolla overlooking the ocean and the setting sun…very nice.

I don’t know how it happened…but tomorrow is our last full day of vacation.  The weather is supposed to be nice so we have a beach day at Mission Beach planned followed by an afternoon in Balboa Park or at the Wild Animal Park…we’ll see how we’re doing.  Until later…