Sea World

Since I've been too busy to come up with something new to say (plus I really have to do something with all the photos I have in my computer before I upload any more), I'll entertain you with some photos I took when I was down in San Diego last month.

I'd never been to Sea World before when we lived there or in all the trips we've taken down there since. In part because it's outrageously expensive (and with five kids...) and in part because we used to live near Marine World in northern California and had been there on numerous occasions (it used to be really nice but now it's just sort of a water themed amusement park - eh) so I didn't feel the need to see more of the same.

But Sam really really wanted to go, so I decided not to be a party pooper and forked over the money, or rather, the credit card. It turns out that Sea World is much larger and grander and, unlike Marine World, was still all about the animals. We had a fantastic time!

One of many funny moments was when we walked by flamingos and I jokingly said "Look at all the lawn ornaments!" Lisa looked into the enclosure and said "I don't see them." Everyone pointed to the flamingos - hard to miss as there were at least a hundred of them, and she replied "Oh! I was trying to find the gnomes." I do love her. Cute AND entertaining.

Another fun thing was during the seal show, they had a trained otter as well. Sam's girlfriend Kyla thought it was a muskrat. Sam tried to tell her it wasn't a muskrat, it was an otter but she was didn't believe him. She finally rolled her eyes and waved her hands to dismiss him - "Fine Sam. It's an otter. Okay? Whatever!" Of course it was an otter, we all explained after the show. And of course we had to tease her for the rest of the day - pointing at different animals and saying "Kyla! Look! A muskrat!"

Oh, and they had a walrus! A trained WALRUS! (I wonder if his name was Paul?)

Here's Joli very intent on grabbing a starfish.

These moray eels were really creepy. William said they reminded him of the Basilisk in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Shudder.

Everyone posed for a group shot. I'm behind the camera of course. Apparently it was Black Shirt Day.


Except for Grammy and Joli, we rebelled and wore bright red.

Look at this awesome guy! Girl?

This was the Cirque de Mer Show. I sooooo wanted to get inside that big ball!

This was so awesome - beluga whales! Their display was inside a building and looked like the north pole even though we were in tropical southern California.

You know I had to break out in song -

"Baby Beluga in the deep blue sea,
Swim so wild and swim so free.
Heaven above, and the sea below,
And a little white whale on the go."

Awwww - penguin love

The best show of all was the summer night rock n' roll Shamu show! Lisa and Joe waited in line while the rest of us went on a virtual helicopter ride so we could have great seats. Us girls were all dancing and singing. They kept moving those video panels back and forth and had all sorts of gorgeous images, plus music both live and taped, AND of course not one, not two, but THREE killer whales. It was awesome.

Isn't this pillar beautiful? There were a bunch of them and they surrounded the the Atlantis roller coaster ride, which was the last thing we did. Well, everyone else went on it while Joli and I waited at the bottom of the ride to watch them all come zooming down through the waterfall. Between rides we watched the fireworks. I kept trying to get Joli to watch them but I couldn't get her to look up into the sky. Oddly though, she would jump and laugh every time one went off. I couldn't figure out what was going on until I realized that she was seeing the fireworks in a big puddle in front of us left by the splash of the waterfall behind us! I had to laugh. I guess her way of watching them was just as legitimate as mine.