Sea World

After the conference, we stayed another night and went to Sea World. I'd have to say that was the best part of the whole excursion. It was everythinng I could have thought it could be, and more. I told Pamela if we were living in Orlando, we'd have season passes there. And on hot saturday afternoons we'd go, just to catch the Killer whale show and then let the boys play in the water park.

Now, its been a while since I've been to the 'Magic Kingdom'. And there is no doubt that it is much much much bigger, but is it better? I dunno. There wasn't a single event I was dissapointed in. No wait, lemme take that back. At the Clydesdale paddock, I was dissapointed because they weren't there where you can see them. They were closeted away and you could only see the one of them in it's stall behind Iron bars and a thick plexiglass screen. If you wanted you could pay $13 and they'd take a picture of you and print it into a 6x8 .. woo!

The ONE thing Cub wanted to see was the killer whales. That was it, nothing else mattered to him. We walked into the park and he said that what he wanted to see. So we made a circuitous route around the park. We visited the dolphins, rays, seals, penguins and puffins. He wanted to ride the water flume ride but he was too short. He did however go up on the bungee cords and bounce on the trampoline. He also wanted to do the rock wall climb, but didnt weigh enough for that one.

When we stopped at the penguin house cub had one comment 'they stink!', and he was right it did stink. Bird shit and dank seawater, but it was dark and cool and great place to get out of the hot sun for a bit. They had Penguins and Terrens and Puffins (the northern version of a penguin they were billed as). Interestingly the puffins use their wings in the water, they kind of swim/fly. It looked awkward yet graceful at the same time.

Jamey was in the stoller and pretty much slept the entire day, I guess the noise and such was a bit much for him. He'd wake up every so often, stare at everyone and everything and then just zonk right back out again. Information overload I guess.

Finally we made it around to the Shamu show and got there just in time to see a spectacular event. It took my breath away, and we weren't even up close. Cub stood there transfixed the whole time, I think he was in even more awe than me. When the guy dives down to the bottom of the pool and then the whale pushes him up out of the water. wow! Cub was holding my hand at that point and squeezed just as hard as he could.

We thought about staying for the night show and seeing the fireworks, but everyone was done in. Everyone was beat tired and ready to go home. We had borrowed Lisa's Sport-Trac for the journey and it made the drive back much more enjoyable. Pamela was able to crawl in the backseat with the boys and entertain them both until they fell alseep.

Dave ...