Zoo Trip Trilogy
Day 1
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Brady had the week off of school, so my parents picked up the kids from their parents' house, and I spent the night at my parents' house on Saturday night, so that we could leave in the morning. Dad drove us down to San Diego, and I tried to get the kids to rock out with me in the car, but they're far too cool for me. I love this picture:
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| The cool kids sit in the back |
We somehow found the correct hotel on Hotel Circle Drive after making a u-turn or two. Did you know that there are 2 Comfort Inns there? Did you know that if you don't follow directions exactly, you'd be on the way to the wrong one? You know now. We dropped off our luggage because it was too early to check in, and made our way to Sea World. Dad had forgotten that we had a Disabled Parking placard for Mom, but luckily for us, the gal at the parking booth noticed it on the dashboard, and directed us to those spaces. Dad got in line for tickets while I took pics of the kids by the Shamu VW bug. Then we found Dad in the shade of the ticket booth, and after doing some math for the best deal for our trip, he bought our tickets and we entered the park. I took pictures of the kids with the Halloween stuff, and then they went through a trick-or-treat line (free for everyone) for some Choc O Rocks on our way to our first show of the day: Sea Lions Clyde and Seymour. This season's show was Halloween-themed, with one of the human performers being a sheriff, and the other one being the maid, whom wanted the money from the uncle's will. There was a painting of the walrus, whom was not in the show. What was his name? I don't remember. The otter kept stealing the will, and kept appearing on stage at the wrong times, which was cracking up the sheriff. Also, they did "Thriller".
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| Clyde, Seymour, and their human cast |
After the show, the guys and I lost Mom and Miss O, because we walked too fast and I guess Mom never heard our plans to eat lunch at Mama Stella's Pizza Kitchen, because Brady chose pizza for lunch. I had a salad and breadsticks. While we were there, we planned the rest of our day. We decided to go to Blue Horizons for the dolphin show. Miss O decided that she wanted us to sit in the Soak Zone. So I took out my poncho and we spread it out as much as possible to at least cover us up a little bit. The show was about a girl who lived by the ocean in a castle, and wanted to know what it was like to be in the sea. So the animals and birds show her. The dolphins splashed us plenty, but not as much as the pilot whales. Wow. Those pilot whales are huge! I guess that's why they're called "whales".
We also saw huge birds fly overhead, and there were aerialists dressed in wet suits with bird-like hoods for their heads. I wanted the music to be Stravinsky's "Firebird" during the phoenix portion, but that didn't happen. The dolphins jump high! They focused a bit much on the human performers, as I could have used less Cirque and more Sea World, and just one pass overhead from each bird did not really give enough time to see them.
Since we had been sitting in the sun, Dad wanted to go to a cooler place (APPARENTLY, he wasn't splashed quite enough to cool down), so we trekked on over to Penguin Encounter. I loved seeing the puffins swim. So cute!
We then went to Wild Arctic to check out the Beluga Whales and the Polar Bears. There were 4 Belugas, and I had forgotten that there was a better view of them underneath, and took lots of pictures of half their bodies when they were getting air. Duh, Sherry. The polar bear pretended to sleep, but I did get a picture of her/him with open eyes.
We also checked out the sea turtle exhibit, and I smiled as I remembered kissing a sea turtle at Grand Cayman. Aw, I wish that the kids could have done that, too. They would have to settle for watching them through the glass, and they also liked seeing all of the different colors of fish. I tried to get pictures of the fish as they swam by in their schools, but they were too fast for me. The two of of them liked the turtles so much that they each got plush turtles for themselves. Miss O's is named Speedy, and Brady's is named...ohmygosh, I can't remember. He also got an Emperor Penguin earlier, and named him Happy Feet.
We walked over to Shamu Stadium, but had the wrong time in mind, so Brady and I walked over to Dolphin Encounter. We were situated by the trainer shelf, so the dolphin came right up next to us. We didn't get to pet her while she passed other people with her belly up, but Brady did get to touch her briefly when she put her head up on the shelf. Then I had memories of Gracie flowing through my head. One of the dolphins names at the Encounter was also named Gracie, so that helped. That wasn't the one that Brady got to touch, though. He was excited about it because he really likes dolphins.
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| Pilot Whale |
We also saw huge birds fly overhead, and there were aerialists dressed in wet suits with bird-like hoods for their heads. I wanted the music to be Stravinsky's "Firebird" during the phoenix portion, but that didn't happen. The dolphins jump high! They focused a bit much on the human performers, as I could have used less Cirque and more Sea World, and just one pass overhead from each bird did not really give enough time to see them.
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| Air Dolphin |
Since we had been sitting in the sun, Dad wanted to go to a cooler place (APPARENTLY, he wasn't splashed quite enough to cool down), so we trekked on over to Penguin Encounter. I loved seeing the puffins swim. So cute!
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| Am I watching them or are they watching me? |
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| Aw, they caught me faking! |
We then went to Wild Arctic to check out the Beluga Whales and the Polar Bears. There were 4 Belugas, and I had forgotten that there was a better view of them underneath, and took lots of pictures of half their bodies when they were getting air. Duh, Sherry. The polar bear pretended to sleep, but I did get a picture of her/him with open eyes.
We also checked out the sea turtle exhibit, and I smiled as I remembered kissing a sea turtle at Grand Cayman. Aw, I wish that the kids could have done that, too. They would have to settle for watching them through the glass, and they also liked seeing all of the different colors of fish. I tried to get pictures of the fish as they swam by in their schools, but they were too fast for me. The two of of them liked the turtles so much that they each got plush turtles for themselves. Miss O's is named Speedy, and Brady's is named...ohmygosh, I can't remember. He also got an Emperor Penguin earlier, and named him Happy Feet.
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| Dad, the kids, their turtles, and Mom's arm |
We walked over to Shamu Stadium, but had the wrong time in mind, so Brady and I walked over to Dolphin Encounter. We were situated by the trainer shelf, so the dolphin came right up next to us. We didn't get to pet her while she passed other people with her belly up, but Brady did get to touch her briefly when she put her head up on the shelf. Then I had memories of Gracie flowing through my head. One of the dolphins names at the Encounter was also named Gracie, so that helped. That wasn't the one that Brady got to touch, though. He was excited about it because he really likes dolphins.
Then it was time for Shamu, and we found the rest of our party safely out of the Soak Zone. APPARENTLY, Miss O had chosen NOT to get wet again. We had great seats on the bleachers right in front of the director's booth, and got to see other people get really, really wet during the One Ocean show. I enjoyed seeing the Pas de Deux, and watching everyone scream during all of the splashing. Miss O will show you how the trainers get the whales to splash if you ask her. So will Brady. many times when you have posed the question to his sister instead of him.
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| Dancing in the Water..or out of the water |
Brady was thinking that it was time to go home and play Angry Birds, but Tita Sherry wanted to see the bat rays. Because they're like BATS! And you can touch them! Miss O almost had to get her whole arm into the shallow pool to touch one, but she did it, and Brady was able to touch one a couple of times. Then I thought of Jenn thinking that a ray was me when we were swimming with them, again at Grand Cayman, like the dolphin and turtle adventures. Oh, I want to do more stuff like that! I also want to go on another cruise...but I digress. We went downstairs and could see the rays swimming above us.
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| Happy Ray wearing a pearl necklace |
We hadn't seen the sharks yet, either, so we walked over to the exhibit, and before we went underground, Brady needed to use the restroom. So the girls waited for the boys to come back. And waited. And waited. Meanwhile, I got this very cute picture as my girl posed for me.
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| Shark Girl |
Then we stopped being so patient and went through the rest of the exhibit without the boys. Miss O likes sharks. She did not, however, want to pose beside the huge Great White Shark jaw.
Finally, we got in touch with Dad, whom had left his cell phone in the car, and had to exit the park to get it. We met the two of them at the main gate, and left. I thought of getting a shirt with a bat ray on it, but we never walked back that way, and I figured that I might be getting a hippo shirt soon.
We returned to the hotel, and saw that I could have my own room with French doors and my own TV and pull-out bed! Dad took the bed out for me, and then the kids proceeded to jump on it. Mom had brought food from home, so she heated it up and we enjoyed our little picnic between the two beds in the main room. Then we had a little slide show of the day's adventure before Miss O "read" her books to me and we all fell asleep with images of dolphins and turtles and killer whales in our heads.
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