I Love SeaWorld...

SeaWorld and I have history! I grew up going to SeaWorld… although it was the one in Columbus, OH rather than the one in Orlando. It is a calming place of sorts… or something like that. I love all of the animals (though I am rather partial to Stingrays as of late). I love to pet them! I have wonderful memories of going to SeaWorld with my parents and my grandparents. And even if everyone else in the whole world thinks it’s sad… SeaWorld is my favorite…

Now… We are planning to spend a whole day at SeaWorld later in the week. However, we had some unaccounted for time to enjoy today, and after my whining about wanting to see more shows than we have time for in one day at SeaWorld, Phil relented and took me there… Which is sort of the truth about how this all came about, but not entirely…

We were originally going to wake up early today, but that plan was blown when we got in so late last night, and it was totally blown when I stayed up until 2am, because blogger was being rather stupid, and I couldn’t get my post to look right… which it still doesn’t… but I’m OK with that now…

So… we woke up late (a little after 8), got everybody dressed and ready to go, ate breakfast outside (which would have been nice were it not freezing and had Grace not forgotten her coat in the hotel room, so I had to give her my sweatshirt), and then made our final decision to visit SeaWorld…


Of course, Shamu is the feature attraction, so we took many pictures of her in various settings:


We really enjoyed the “Believe” show this time around. When we were here two years ago, the overall presentation was more powerful, but they had added some things to the show that were just amazing, as well. The only disaster was when Ian fell off the bleachers and smacked his face on the row in front of us. He has quite a shiner, as the ice I was able to attain at the concession stand was too little, too late… poor guy!

We also rode all of the rides in “Shamu’s Happy Harbor”, and even Ian was big enough to ride everything except for the roller coaster:

Above and Below: "The Flying Fiddler"

Phil and Caleb on "The Shamu Express"

We saw “A’lure”, which I thought was beautiful, but Grace thought was scary… and I doubt I will ever talk Phil into going to Cirque du Soliel (which definitely wasn’t in the plan for this trip, anyhow)…

After a quick trip by the Dolphin Nursery, we left the park and headed to Pizza Hut… where we ate lots… and lots of food… and then made our first journey onto Disney soil:


We shopped just a bit at Downtown Disney, hitting the Lego store where all “five” of my “kids” enjoyed the lego pick-a-brick wall… Ian even stuffed legos under his bottom in the stroller, but don’t worry… we didn’t shoplift anything… I got them all out and returned them to the wall:


I also finally managed to secure a pressed penny holder, which is exciting for me, but probably everyone else is just laughing…

At any rate, we returned to the hotel after our short Downtown Disney excursion, and all of the kids were asleep shortly after that. I have been downloading pics. and typing ever since, and I need to go hang out with Brad and Sheri now, and then I need sleep… because tomorrow promises another exciting day… hopefully not quite so chilly!

Lisa