Today was our visit to Sea World. As you can tell from the posts so far, we're sort of on a marathon pace, especially considering one of us is just out of kindergarten. I think we're all getting a little exhausted, but, as I said to the family, "We're not quitting until you're so tired that you're crying, and I'm talking about Mom here!" So off we went to Sea World.
Sea World seemed much more crowded than the other parks we've been to. Not sure why, but it was. So upon entering, we headed straight over to the Shamu 'Believe' show, which was amazing at several levels, and quite conflicting. So, yes, it's pretty cool to see those enormous creatures flying through the air and interacting with humans in a non-predatory way. But on the other hand, it's amazing that these huge, predatory creatures are willing to interact with humans in a non-predatory way, and it's amazing that humans (tourists) find it entertaining to turn these incredibly dangerous creatures into pets doing parlor tricks. The Things were both pretty enthralled with the whole thing, although Thing 1 complained a little because we weren't in the 'splash zone'. (I thought having 50F salt water splashed in my face didn't sound like fun, but as it continued to heat up, I was changing my mind.) Sweetie thought it stupid that a great deal of the show was devoted to splashing the audience. I loved the parts where the orcas pushed the trainers high in the air, but thought the music and text of the show was over-the-top New Agey.
The next thing we encountered was the Shipwreck Rapids, a flume-type ride. It was quite popular, and we ended up waiting in line about 45 minutes, but it moved along more than our bad experience with the Sky Cruiser and had a much better payoff. Sweetie got the worst of it, but we all got pretty wet, which is what the Things were hoping for, and it wasn't so extreme a ride that Thing 2 was scared, so a good time was had by all.
We looked at a number of exhibits, finding some of them (the sea turtles) kind of sad, and most of them not very educational. We decided to see a dolphin show. For that one, we sat in the splash zone. This was working out pretty well until the let out the pilot whales. Those things can move some water. At one point I saw a wall of water heading towards me, so I just ducked my head. We were pretty wet by the end, but it was again cool to see the amazing flips, etc the dolphins can do. The Things were very pleased.
We also decided to see the sea lion show. I will note here that Sea World understands that people show up early for the shows in order to get good seats. So to keep the little ones from complaining too much about sitting in the hot sun for 20 minutes, about 15 minutes before the show, there's a sort of pre-show. For the Shamu show it was a goofy, new-agey movie. For the dolphins, it was a guy playing guitar and leading a sing-along. For the sea lions, it was a bit of a comedy routine, with a guy acting out tv shows. Very well done; very funny. The sea lion show was also very funny. Thing 2 was absolutely entranced, clapping and dancing along with the action on the stage.
Immediately afterwards we went to the dreaded Sesame Street 4D movie, that seemed entirely harmless until Sweetie noticed a sign that said "You will get wet in this attraction." Now she was getting a little tired of being wet, having gotten soaked twice already. But we were already in line and Thing 2 was not about to leave over a little water. The movie was cute and occasionally a small amount of water was sprayed on us. At one point a thunderstorm started in the movie and water dripped from ceiling and Sweetie, expecting a drenching, turned to me and I just laughed. Good times. Good thing it was only those few drips, too. Sweetie's still talking to me.
It was getting late, so we saw a few more exhibits, sharks, manatees, and the freshwater aquarium. Then we decided to feed the sea lions. The Things had fun tossing fish at the noisy crowd. Some gulls and egrets were also there trying to poach fish. After that, we were tired and hungry, so we left. The place we're staying for the next few days is a suite with a full kitchen. This has been magic for putting the Things to bed. Score one for us.
Tomorrow, we slow it down a bit.
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