Splish Splash SeaWorld Day!

Well my cunning planning had us spending the weekend going to SeaWorld since the marathon would be going on and it supposedly causes havoc with driving/parking and the crowd levels are higher.

I had promised the fam that our SeaWorld days would be leisurely so we slept in and made it to the park at about 11am. Parking was still pretty good …of course Nana’s handicapped placard helped. We went to the left of the entrance gates in a door next to the customer service/will call window to a separate window inside to pick up our passes.

With the Discovery Cove package you get a free week pass to SeaWorld, but until you actually go to Discovery Cove and get your ID badge you have to go in and get individual day passes issued. The upside is that you get to go into the park through a separate entrance right next to the little lagoon where the lighthouse is.

We headed in and Shamu was there, so we got a pic with the girls:

We realized that we forgot to pack shorts for Bean so she lucked out and got a pair of dolphin shorts from the gift shop right up front. From there we headed up to the left and took a shot of the flamingos

and then on to the sea turtles

We rolled on up and decided to check out Blue Horizons, a show combining dolphins, birds, and acrobats. We start with an amazing vaulting leap!

Then a group of parrots swoop in right over our heads!

Surf’s up!

A beautiful parrot-themed air dancer swooped over the pool

Then a pod of dolphins take the stage

Their synchronization was amazing, and just as you were cheering from that, a whole squadron of parrots fly across

More surfing

And I was ready this time and got a great shot of another flight of parrots

…which was part of the grand finale!

After the show we headed past the Journey to Atlantis log ride, which was closed (we were very sad about that one) so we moved on to the newest attraction at the park, Kraken roller coaster! We had to deal with a bit of a melt-down with Bean, because it was the one coaster during out trip that she was too short for. It was a double bummer since Atlantis was
closed, so she got no thrill rides at SeaWorld :-[

She stayed with the moms and Roxy, Kyra, and I took a spin on the coaster. It was fast and different – cool enough a coaster ride but we only rode it once so Bean wouldn’t have to wait on us and feel more left out. Don’t feel too bad for her though, she got a stuffed sea lion from the Grandmas out of the deal
 – lol.

We decided to skip the penguin habitat since we have a big one at the Oregon Zoo and had been to it several times. We stopped to look at a couple of the birds in pens attached to one of the gift shops

We started getting hungry so looked through the food offerings and decided to take a stroll across the park to Mango Joes Café.

They had some really good food, but very persistent “friends” who wanted us to share with them. There are rules about not feeding the animals …but someone needs to tell the animals that because
this bunch ended up leaping on the girls food and spilling Bean’s chicken & fries:

The servers were really cool about the situation and replaced her meal for free 😀

After our food settled we strolled over to Shamu’s Happy Harbor to let the kids have some fun on the rides.

The ladies took a ride on a big crab

Then our adventures take us in different directions. We split up, with me accompanying my mom, who wanted to ride the Shamu Express and the girls, who wanted to climb the 3 story tall play area.

They had fun but it was pretty tiring for them doing all that climbing:

…while I hammed it up on the ‘coaster:

After we were all fun’d out we decided to take in the Pets Ahoy show. Unfortunately it had filled up early so after a quick stop to get the girl’s pic taken by the wave

We made our way up to the Nautilus Theater, which was doing a special Jack Hanna
Show …something I had been very much looking forward to.

We were way early and were the first at the handicapped entrance, so when the doors opened the mom’s got the best wheelchair area and since there wasn’t seating with them (it was kind of a scooter corral), we were able to move all the way up front. Kyra and I were right next to the stage and Roxy and Bean were just to the left of us.

Before the show started Jack came out and autographed posters and took pics, so we sent both girls over

And a few minutes later the show began – it was pretty amazing to see some of these animals so up close and personal

Now at this point the snakes came out….

…and specifically the RATTLESNAKE! Which you can see was mere feet from myself and Kyra. You should have heard the sound of that rattle going off so close to us – yow!

The show had been amazing so far. Very interesting animals and lots of good information about them. Hanna was a font of knowledge about animals, conservation, and the work that SeaWorld does in relation to both.  Now back to the fun!

Some pretty kitties

And more feathered friends

The show was interesting and enlightening and we all enjoyed it very much!

After the show we rolled right down the hill to the shark area. We picked up some trinkets from the gift shop there and stopped by the outdoor pool

And then we made our way inside to the exhibits

Here’s a funky little dude

The barracuda were interesting

…and were giving Bean the ‘eye’

Then ON TO THE SHARKS!

That was it for us there, so we headed out of SeaWorld for the day. But we weren’t done for the day…

We had a promise to make good on to the girls. Since our first day there was lost due to the flight out snafu we had lost the chance at going to the McDonalds with the biggest play area. So we drove down to it minus my mom who got picked up by my pop and went out for steaks. Oh, how I envied them that!

For anyone who is brave enough to tell their kids about it, it is on the same road as the Pirates Adventure Dinner place. We had standard McDonalds food, but I must mention that they have a wide variety of dishes including pasta and other meals with more substance. We ate quickly and headed upstairs for the games!

The girls changed in their tickets including a jackpot that I won on one of those tornado lights games and picked up some standard little plastic trinkets. Roxy grabbed ice cream for them and we rolled out for the resort. The drive back was uneventful and we actually still made it back around 8pm. We did showers and headed to bed.

Tomorrow we do more SeaWorld and the printer situation comes back to haunt us