Update: Y'all have got to be better about telling me about typos, misspellings and omission of large sections of a sentence. Seriously. I fixed it, so all is well again, but considering yourself warned.
Second update: My boy S at the hair salon made me look real good today. I dread washing my hair and then it being at my mercy again.
I made it out of the house with much less drama today. And I even walked out with a cup of coffee. Double score. AND, I am getting my hair cut today, so its gonna be a good day, today is.
What was also a good day was the day we went here.
50% of our household loves marine mammals. And 25% seems to like them, and I don't know about Keith. Through our local friendly AAA office we got buy one day, get one day free tickets to the marine mammal world, which made us very happy. We saved this park for our last two days and luckily had great weather. A bit cold at times, but overall very good.
Sea World is a big park and can become confusing. Lucky for us our boys are really good at reading maps. Our first stop was the dolphin theatre, which you can see Grady located on the map.
On our way there we got distracted by flamingoes. Flamingoes that are actually the pink/orange color you expect, not like the pale ones at our zoos. Yes, I know its based on what they're fed, but how different is the food at Sea World from the Atlanta Zoo?
We were almost to the dolphin area when we spied the touch pool, and it was nearly deserted, so we went to touch. Cole LOVED this. See how the ray is saying hello? Well, this one particular ray (and yes, i could tell it was the same one, it had a scar) kept swimming by and then popped its head right up and out of the water. Cole squealed and giggled. And when I told him that meant the ray was saying hi, he giggled more. And then he started waving at the ray and saying hi.
He was a little unsure about the touching part, but I wasn't.
They were really not happy to leave the touch pool, but we promised cooler things awaited us. So off to find a seat in the dolphin theatre.
You've heard me complain about the National Aquarium's dolphin show here, and I dont want to sound like a broken record, but can we all not just enjoy hearing about the dolphins from the trainer? Must we be subjected to some form on crazy storyline and extra theatrics and excessively loud music?
We tried to block the storyline, and enjoyed the dolphins. Thankfully, at one point one of the dolphins did not cooperate, (Perhaps shared my distain for the excessive dramatics?) so the trainer came out and did a little oldschool talking to the audience about the dolphins. That, I loved.
And of course I loved the jumps.
But oh boy, here we go with the dramatic shite. Grady did love this. Wook, da ladies! See the parrot lady swinging?
And there were more parrot people. See the lady in blue on the walkway? She was Grady's favorite. When she left the area and the dolphins came back Grady kept asking "where the ladies at?". So, take a look at the blue lady below. Probably somewhat embarrasing to wear all those feathers. But you know would be more embarrasing? Being one of the three guys dressed in the very festive birdlike costumes behind her on the walkway.
For a few minutes those dudes stood there and we had no idea why. Until...
I'll concede the diving was cool. The flying ladies? Not so sure about that. And I would have liked the divers more if it were a water-based cirque de soleil show, but it wasn't. It was a dolphin show. Show me dolphins and tell me about them, dammit.
Another cool thing was the parrot guy. While the lady parrot was floating above the pool, real trained birds fly through the amphitheatre and landed on this dude, who just so happened to stand near out seats.
And then that show was done and we went to the sea lion show. Cute, but I'll spare you my critique. I did miss part of the show due to someone's unfortunately potty accident. It's hard to focus on holding peepeee when you have so much going on, you know?
The boys are getting really good at getting their way. They wanted to play the penguin game, so instead of asking repeatedly or throwing a fit, they just stood quietly and gazed longingly at the penguins.
Naturally I told Keith that they HAD to play it, give them each three dollars! you pick a penguin out of the water, and look at the colored sticker under that penguin. The color of the sticker dictates whether your price is a small, medium or large stuffed penguin.
Grady picked.
Cole picked. And wouldn't you know, both of them got the small penguin. Amazing, the coincidence.
I jest. We all know there's probably only one penguin marked for a medium or large stuffed animal.
Then, to our favorite part of the park. Or second favorite. The kiddie rides. This one was fun. Goes up in the air and spins.
Then another ride that was like a boat that swooshed back and forth and side to side. We liked that a lot.
And then, the killer whale show. The cheesiness factor of this show was lower, but again, one of the animals did not want to cooperate. I liked this because the animal trainer came out and talked to us, and that was cool. We listened intently.
And then the show resumed and we saw some neat trained behaviors.
But, because of the pause in the show earlier, Grady was over it. He was more excited about playing with my face/lips/double chin (yikes!) than watching the show.
I really should have put some lipstick on.
And here, friends, was the hands-down winner of the day. While Keith ogled some college football player he recognized, the boys played in the fountain. For a long, long time. So, let's recap.
Touch ray? Eh.
See dolphins leap? Eh.
Watch ladies dressed as birds fly? Eh.
Kiddie rides with no waiting lines? Eh.
Killer whales? Eh.
Fountain with frigid water? WOW. Amazing! Thank you mom and dad for driving us 8 hours to play in this fountain. This is really cool.
Who knew the water would be so fun? When it was time to leave to go take naps, we were not, I repeat, not happy. But we sure did nap well.
No comments:
Post a Comment