But there wasn't a cloud in the sky and before long it warmed up to about 70 degrees and stayed that way throughout the day. Sea World is a very fun place for kids of all ages to visit. Between Sabrina, grandpa and myself, we took about 600+ pictures. It's really hard to narrow down a great day to just 35 pictures, so you'll have to congratulate me for this great accomplishment. The children are napping, following worship at church and a wonderful lunch, so if they wake up I am going to have to delay publishing this post until later tonight ...
When you enter the park here in San Antonio, you first walk right past Clydesdale Hamlet. This is the first time I have seen the horses out of their barn area. I was so excited to see them in natural light instead of inside their enclosures. What beautiful animals!
Karis getting a piggy-back ride from Grandpa Jones ...
This ride is called Journey to Atlantis. Jackson rode it 2x about a week ago when he and his family were at the park. Yesterday he wasn't so sure he wanted to get back on ... but he finally decided to ride with his mommy and daddy.
Isn't this a great picture of them coming down?
It makes quite a splash on impact!
See Jackson's happy smile? He's quite proud to be tall enough to finally ride some cool rides. Last year he wanted to really badly, but he didn't meet the height requirement.
There is a fabulous playground called Shamu's Happy Harbor. Inbetween watching shows, we would let the little kids play there.
This is Karis and Sabrina sharing a drink. Beverages (and any food) are really expensive here at the park, so it's a good idea to purchase one of those refillable bottles and share ...
Since I took tons of pictures last year of all of the animals, I decided I would try to get more pictures of the children watching the shows this year ... to see their reactions, etc.
The VIVA show begins with a hilariously funny fellow interacting with the audience. There are all kinds of water fountains scattered about the stadium ... if you don't want to get drenched, DO NOT sit near one ... because this guy goes from spout to spout doing all kinds of acrobatics pretending he doesn't know that he is spraying folk all around him. I've seen the show at least once before, but it is almost funnier each time you see it. We kept saying how much we thought Nicolas could behave in this outrageous manner and be just as entertaining ...
The little kids were sharing a bucket of popcorn ~ again, very expensive unless you plan ahead and save your refillable container. They were gracious and passed the bucket around so that we all had our fill of popcorn. This VIVA show is very elaborate and so well done. There are tons of athletic folk doing water acrobats, interacting with pacific white-sided dolphins and beluga whales too.
I was able to get some nice photos of Olivia and Leah because they really didn't notice me taking their picture!
The comedian has just super splashed an entire row of people ... I think Jackson thought it was very funny.
I loved watching the kids' expressions ...
Yesterday was a special day at Sea World, a Praise Wave and Christian Concert day featuring Third Day. The concert was free with admission ... but we never got into the stadium where the performance was going on. The line was just too long and the children too young to wait that long. We just didn't bother with the concert at all.
This is underneath the Great White Shark ride, which is very similar to The Raptor (remember that ride, Jesse?) at Cedar Pointe. Olivia and Leah were determined to ride it ... and Sabrina and Andrew were actually crazy enough to get on it as well. We don't have any pictures of them on the ride because grandpa and I stayed with the little kids while everyone else was in line and this was really as close as we could get to the action.
Grandpa and Jackson tried to get to a place where they could snap a good shot, but the ride was delayed for awhile and then once they allowed folk back on, it was hard to determine which car everyone had boarded, etc.
Karis was a bit bothered by the noise of the screaming passengers, so she just blocked her little ears ... we were waiting by a structure that had the name of the ride in huge letters. Karis wanted to know: "Are there monsters in there, grandma?" I told her there was no such thing. But then she roared like a lion and told me there most certainly were!
The Shamu show is always beautiful to see. I did take a few pictures of these huge creatures, but I was in the same row as the little kids and couldn't get a good angle on their faces to snap any decent pictures.
There is a SPLASH ZONE and they warn folk that if you choose to sit there, you will definitely get wet. Actually, this zone extends all the way to Row 13. See how huge the splash is?
These close-up shots were from grandpa's camera, which does a better job handling distance and movement.
There is almost too much to do in one day at this park. Sabrina's family has a season pass, so they will go many times and pick special shows to see and ones they can do another time ... that way they can really enjoy everything to the max.
I've never been to Dolphin Cove when it wasn't completely packed and too crowded to get to the edge. Plus, I've never been there during feeding time ... so our pictures are what they are ... not the best!
These are Atlantic bottlenose dolphins ...
And here I am leaning over the crowd, trying my hardest to get the dolphin to lift its head out of the water and talk to me ...
Since the dolphin had already been fed earlier in the day, we were not allowed to go and puchase more fish for them ... I was happy to have gotten this close ... and he looked at me straight in the eye! I leaned over to touch his snout and got within 1/2" but ... then he swam away. This is really only a tiny bit of what we saw and did yesterday, but enough is enough. The children have woken up from their naps and it is time to go play!
2 comments:
Sounds fun, Mom! Sea World is almost always crowded...and I often have wished I could have the place to myself (well, and my family, of course). I'm getting anxious to go home to Texas. Are you anxious to get home to Michigan? I imagine you have mixed feelings. Love to you!
Hi Rachel! No, I'm not at all anxious to get home to Michigan because I know we will not get back to Texas until probably mid-to-late September ~ that's a really long time to be away from so many we will miss so much. Sabrina and family will be coming to Michigan for a few weeks in June, so that's good; and we will see you and the children a little bit more when we get back to Michigan, so that's good too ... but we have no assurance of seeing Jesse, Di and the children before we return to Texas in September. Six months is unbelievably long to be separated from all of them. I'm hoping they will be able to get home in the late summer, but they haven't made me any promises about that.
Dad e-mailed you the pictures just this evening that we took of the property and house in Comfort. It's hard to really photo a place and do it justice ... you can't smell the smells or hear the wonderful sounds or breathe the fresh country air, etc. but I hope it helps you to visualize it a little bit better.
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