Dining with Shamu

I have been looking forward to today, the day we spent at Seaworld, for a long time. Sea World is one of my favorite theme parks to visit in Southern California. Not only is the park well laid out and easy to navigate, the shows are entertaining for both young and old alike. There is something magical and mysterious in the interaction between man and these large sea mammals.

We started with Shamu Believe, which was a wonderful show. We sat in the soak zone, which was fun, but I had long forgotten (if I ever sat there before) just how wet you get in the soak zone. Duane bought a plastic poncho, which served him very well. I had a parka on over my shirt, which at least kept it fairly dry. But my pants were uncovered and our son didn't have any rain gear on at all. We were both soaked! Fortunately, we had packed a spare change of clothes for him, but I was simply out of luck. I made a quick right hand turn into the Shamu store and bought myself a pair of khaki shorts. At least I was mostly dry.

During the day we walked through the various aquariums and visited the pet show (performed by trained rescue animals), the dolphin show, the 4D Muppet movie (the fourth dimension being touch...) and the seal/otter show. We also visited the Arctic area and saw polar bears, beluga whales, Commerson's dolphins (a miniature orca). The last time we visited there was even a narwhal in this area, although I didn't see one this time.

We skipped the water roller coaster - it was too foggy and cold to want to do that ride and we were already too wet from Shamu! Maybe next time...

Our son found the play structure and spent a good 45 minutes playing there. Duane and I went off our diets and split a caramel apple funnel cake. Yum!

By far, the highlight of the evening was Dining with Shamu. We had made reservations prior to coming to the park for a 6:00 pm seating. The food was quite good and Corky (our "Shamu" for the evening) performed some behaviors while we watched and dined.

Lots of walking again today, by the end of which we were all very tired, but very happy.