Vacation 2013 Sea World

On Tuesday we went to Sea World. I liked it well enough, but I feel like they try to do too many things. Are they about education and conservation? Are they about shows? Are they about rides? I wanted to like it more, but it felt like they didn't do any one thing particularly well. The kids loved it, and I spent time taking pictures with my phone for our niece Avery, who is two and loves all things that live in the ocean.

My favorite animal is by far the turtle. But Sea Turtles are my most favorite of them all. I could have stayed in this place all day and been perfectly content. They are just so cool. 

 This guy was taking a little nap on the bottom. Right up front. He seemed kind of annoyed at me.

 I tried to get in some of the pics and take a few with Shawn. I don't want it to be like I wasn't even there! :) So there aren't many, but I'm getting better.

 

Seeing "Shamu" was fun. I have no idea if any one of these whales is even called Shamu, but whatever. It's Sea World. We arrived early so we could sit in the "Splash Zone" up close, but also risky. 

 They really are cute though, aren't they?

See that splash? It's coming right for us...the whales swam around on their side and splashed everyone with their fins. 

The kids are a little drippy, but Shawn took the brunt of the water, and I got a mouthful. It was rather nasty. 

The woman in front of me was pretty smart there with her poncho. See her head in the corner down there? I was a little jealous. 

Since we were already wet we decided it was as good a time as any to go on the water ride. Shawn and I were not spared, but at least the kids got soaked too! Kira was happy about it. Evan didn't seem as thrilled as she was.

 

The food here was surprisingly good. I had ribs, which were pretty tasty. Everyone seemed happy with the food. Including the birds who were stealing food off of unattended trays. 

Evan wanted to feed the seals. The lady that sold him the fish and the woman who was telling people how to do it said repeatedly "Don't hold onto the fish or dangle it or the birds will eat it." So what did Evan do right away? Dangled a fish. And a bird stole it right out of his hand. Scared him a bit. I wish I had caught it on camera! It was pretty funny actually.

This is the kind of bird that stole it from him. Pretty, but pretty rude!

 

He got the hang of it. 

 The seals were begging. Loudly. They sit and scream at all the people.

 Nice catch!

The manta ray was popular. Not this one...the roller coaster ride. But the kids liked petting these guys too. ;) 

 

 We really enjoyed the Cirque de la Mer show. These people are incredible. I cannot even fathom how much upper body strength they must have!

 The comedy was fun, some poor guy from the audience was a really good sport, but the jesters of the show gave him a hard time. He was in the ball trying to stand up and they were punching it with that jet ski all around. It was pretty entertaining...to all of us safe in our seats.

 These women were awesome! There were two of them, and they were just hanging on to the ribbon dancing above the water. So cool. In the back ground you can see the sky ride tram thing? We did that next.

Here we are with the cirque stage in the background now. 

Overall, we had a really great time, even if it felt a little disjointed. :)