Seaworld in San Diego

For one of the days that we were down in California, we traveled south to San Diego to visit Seaworld.  We got up early to be on a bus by 8:00AM.  Then it was off to a bus terminal, to stand in line to board yet another bus.  Then we drove for 90 minutes with a very ditzy blond tour guide to Seaworld.  There we stood in line yet again to get into the park... finally... by noon!!  We had limited time to see everything as the park closed early at 5:00PM during the off season.  We were told to beware of the seagulls and other birds as they were very aggressive and were quick to seize the opportunity to steal any snacks or food.  We found this to be true first hand when we had an early lunch before exploring the park.

After lunch we checked out the dolphin show.  We were rather naive and sat in the second row, well down into the soak zone.  We quickly learned that the dolphins and pilot whales had been trained to splash a lot of water into the first ten rows.  This would have been fine on a hot summer day but considering that it was February and the temperature was only around 60F, we were not particularly impressed.  Of course we had the option to purchase five rain ponchos at $8 each, but we turned this down.

After the dolphin show we went and checked out the killer whale show, featuring the star of the park "Shamu".  This time we seated ourselves above the soak zone.  The show was good, and we managed to stay dry.

After the second show we checked out most of the aquariums and exhibits in the park.  This included penguins, polar bears, belugas, sea otters, and various other fish and marine life.  The girls got a real kick out of feeding and touching the bat rays.  These guys were pretty tame and very quick to come to the squid that we purchased and offered as food.  Again we had to be careful of the seagulls and egrets so that the food was not stolen.

By 5:00PM when the park was closing we had still not quite seen everything, but had to hurry to catch our bus back to Anaheim with the ditzy blond.  Being one of the last stops on the circuit we didin't get back to our hotel until around 8:30PM.  This made for a very long day for four little girls.  We took out some food from the restaurant across the street and fell asleep in short order.