Sea World!

It's finally time for Blake to pay up on his Christmas present to me, Max, and Jack. No more of this, "I got you a present but it's combined with birthday, anniversary, V-day, etc. so you won't get it until then" stuff. We left for San Diego Wednesday afternoon, only 2 hours and 45 minutes later than planned. Max and Jack were so good on the drive--we only stopped once and they either slept, watched movies, or cooed the entire ride. We even arrived at the hotel parking lot just seconds before Grandpa, Nanny, and Ashley who were joining us on this vacation. After Blake handed out the weekend's itinerary, we went to sleep to make sure we didn't miss Blake's 8 am wake up call.

Sea World opened at 10 and we got there at 9:15. We got the first parking spot in the lot, bought our tickets, and waited in line for the doors to open. While we were waiting in line, we studied the map and schedule and planned out the day. So, when the doors finally did open, we knew straight where to go--the dolphins. Max loved watching the dolphins swim by, but once it was time to touch them, that was a different story. Good thing Blake helped to make sure he didn't miss out on the opportunity. I love Blake's smiling face and Max's screaming face in these pictures.

Before our first show, we also saw the penguins and sharks. Being a big fan of the movie "Happy Feet," Max loved the penguins. But apparently he was not a big fan of the sharks. While Blake and I were trying to take a picture of Ashley and Jack (none of which worked out due to the poor lighting in the exhibit), we lost Max. Blake went looking toward the door we came in and I went further into the exhibit to look for him. I was the lucky one who found him in the middle of climbing into a shallow pool with some little sharks to reach some rocks. I guess the rocks were more interesting than the sharks.

Our first show was the dolphins. Spectacular. They had me fooled till the very end. After the dolphins we ate lunch then continued to see everything at Sea World. We saw the flamingos, seals, sea lions (Do you know the difference between seals and sea lions? Sea lions have ears), starfish, eels, and manta rays. It was even getting hot enough that Grandpa, Ashley and Blake braved the Shipwreck Rapids and got soaking wet.
Then it was time for the main attraction--Shamu. Blake and Max got VIP seating on the first row of the Soak Zone (It is no longer the "Splash Zone" as I remember from my childhood. I guess now you don't just get "splashed" you get "soaked.") and the rest of us stayed on the back row of the soak zone. The show was good, but a little too cheesy for my taste. And can you believe that Blake and Max didn't get a single drop of water on them? At least they got a pretty good view of Shamu. I love that you can see Max standing up, leaning over the rail to see Shamu in the picture.
After Shamu, we went over to the roller coaster ride (I had no idea Sea World had rides now), saw the Pet Show, and toured the arctic, seeing the belugas and polar bears. I really think we saw and did everything that was available. The only sad thing was that the seal and otter show was closed. That's my favorite one, it's so funny. We did get a picture with the otter, so that helped ease the pain. And can you believe that the only sign we could find to take a picture by was the side of a vending machine? Very disappointing Sea World. That's something you can improve on. We left 45 minutes after the park closed; the last ones to leave. A successful Sea World day.