Day Nineteen - Sea World

June 17th


We decided to spend Father's Day at Sea World. I mean, what doesn't say Father's Day than let's get up at the crack of dawn and haul teeny children around in the heat all day for $70 a pop? :)

Dolphin Nursery

This walrus was swimming upside down under water back and forth. Very cool.

At this point I realize (because my inside pictures start to look like crap) that my flash has died. What the heck. So daytime photos only right now! Grrrrrrr. Never fear, we still have a warranty so I'll deal with that at some point.

Off to see One World, the killer whale show. It is kind of weird to think that this is the same tank where the trainer was killed last year. Shesh.

Everyone's excited for the show........

and she's out.

I also enjoyed that the camera man in the bottom right knew right when to cover his camera with the shield to block the water.

Oh Zoey, you didn't see one killer whale. Not one.

Near the large stadium are all of the kid rides. Evan and I rode this teacup in the sky thing, and we also rode the Shamu roller coaster (no good pictures of that). It was actually pretty fast and high, and he loved it. He rode it with Grandma as well, and held her hand in case she was scared.

We saw some beautiful animals, a bald eagle, an anteater, and then these macaws that were only a few feet in front of us.

At this point the kids were getting cranky, cranky. It was time for lunch and we were trying to scramble to figure out where to go. They have a restaurant near the shark tanks that you normally have to get reservations for, but I figured I would give it a try since the park wasn't that busy. They got us right in, and sat us right up against the shark tanks. The restaurant was really dark so it make the aquarium look all that much brighter.

Never underestimate the power of sharks to calm your kids right down. Phew.

After lunch, we saw the pirate show with sea lions and a gigantic walrus. Evan slept through most of it but Zoey loved it.

Then we headed to the sprinklers to let the kids cool off. We had brought extra clothes and knew there was a baby house we could use to change them and take a break before finding dinner. I think this was their favorite part of the day!! (A highlight was definitely when it was Evan's turn to use the water gun, he completely blasted this poor girl in a wheelchair. Fortunately she was a good sport and enjoyed getting doused.)

We also saw this really cool band playing many feet in the air.

We ate dinner and then ran to see the Turtle Trek exhibit before the park closed. Evan almost had a heart attack in the 3D show though because a 50-foot hermit crab tries to eat you (you are supposed to be a baby turtle). Other than that he loved it.

So bye bye Sea World. We were there for a total of 12 hours, and had a great time. Needless to say the kids crashed in the car as soon as we got on the road. 

Happy Father's Day. :)