After a day of relaxing we spent an entire day at Sea World, 10:00am to 6:30pm! It was a long day but we all had so much fun! This is was also our most expensive day, parking alone was $12, and we chose this day to buy lunch in the park (but it was totally worth it!).
Sea World has a lot of shows and animal interactions so we needed to schedule out our day as soon as we got there. Some shows are done quite a few times and others like the Shamu show is only done twice a day. When figuring out the day you have to time the shows just right so you are not going back and forth from one end of the park to the other just to catch them. We started with the penguins and it was feeding time which was fun to watch. The exhibit was pretty cool (literally too) a few feet away from the glass was a moving sidewalk, a great way to get people moving through but also give you a chance to see the whole think. Then raised above the side was a normal viewing area with benches so you could camp out and watch the penguins eat, swim and play.
While waiting for the show to start we could smell ribs being grilled at the restaurant next to the stadium. We figured that it was too expensive to get them for lunch but wanted to check after the show. A full rack of ribs was $16.99 and Josh and I decided to split the lunch, it smelled too good to pass up. Along with our expensive ribs we got Abi a kids meal with souvenir plate and cup, and Josh and I splurged on a souvenir cup for us. We learned at the Safari Park to spend the money on a souvenir cup, and you get free refills the whole day, we also just refilled with water since it was so warm that week. The cup with a soda was $8.99! But this was vacation and we chose to splurge just a bit! After our delicious lunch we walked to the Shark Encounter Aquarium. It was really cool to see so many different types of sharks but the lighting so too low to get any good pictures. We walked through another aquarium then off to the next show, Sea Lions Live. We got there early enough to watch the "pre-show", it was pretty funny and included some members of the audience. The seals were amazing! The trainers and seals were dancing to music and jumping off the 2nd level of the stage, pretty cool!
We figured after the sea lion show that Abi might be willing to nap in the stroller for a bit if we walked around. It was looking pretty good but there was just too much that Abi wanted to see and experience. In place of a nap as long as we keep Abi busy and she has snacks she does pretty well. Next was the touch pool, where we could pick up and play with sea stars and other tide pool animals.
Abi kept saying as she would pick a sea star up "take home?". She had so much fun and could have spend hours with her hands in the water.
After the touch pool we wondered over to the Dolphin Encounter. We were not sure what to expect but when we got there they had a trainer available to answer questions and other trainers were out feeding the dolphins. The pool was designed in a way that everyone who was close enough to the sides could reach in the water. Parts of the wall were sloped towards the outside and the trainers said you could place smaller children on the sloped edge so they too could reach in the water. We were not lucky enough to be able to touch a dolphin when they swam close to the wall but others were. The dolphins seemed to be hanging out on the other side of the pool so we walked around to see if we could get a better look. We got found the perfect spot to watch the dolphins doing tricks, flying through the air, playing and eating. Abi loved watching th dolphins play and swim around. Josh and I loved watching and taking a million pictures, believe me I wont post them all.
After an hour of dolphin watching it was time to find seats for the Shamu Show, our last show of the day! At the stadium there is a "soak zone" that consists of the first 16 rows of benches! Way, way, way back when I visited Sea World almost 20 years ago I sat in the "soak zone" and you do get wet. Now it was a warm day but we didn't want to spend the rest of the night soaked. Another great show, I watched in amazement as these HUGE killer whales fly 10 up in the air!
Getting out of the stadium was tricky since it was full of thousands of people and we were trying to get over to the Sesame Street Bay of Play. We used this as a reward for Abi if she behaved and listened to Josh and I during the day. The best part about the Sesame Street area is there was a "Abbi" ride, Abbi is a character from Sesame Street and we kept telling Abi there was a ride named after her. Also there was an Elmo's Flying Fish ride very similar to the Dumbo ride at Disneyland. We got to the Elmo ride and Josh and Abi stood in line while I stayed back and took pictures. While they were in line I looked at the Abbi Ride and decided that it probably wouldn't be the best ride for Abi, it was a Tea Cup ride and with Abi having the tendency to get motion sick, I thought it wouldn't be the best for all if she got sick. Abi waited very patiently in line with Josh which was pretty surprising, she had her eyes on the prize and was so excited to finally be able to ride a flying fish.
While Josh and Abi were waiting in line I looked around the gift shop and was so excited to see a cup with Tanner's name on it! I guess it is becoming a popular name but didn't think I would find something with his name on it. We bought the cup as his souvenir from his first big trip. When we left Sea World we had someone take a family picture in front of a really cool VW Beetle. It was painted to look like a killer whale, top fin and tail fin. Abi kept calling it "nene car" (Denise's car), every Beetle she sees is a nene car. For 2 1/2 Abi sure knows her cars!
We finally got to the car around 6:30 and Abi was asleep before we even left the parking lot. This had been the longest day so far and maybe the most fun and Abi sure showed it. Our dinner plan was to try a place Jolie had told me about called Noodles and we really wanted Abi to get a little more sleep but Josh and I were super hungry. Abi refused to wake up and continued to sleep during dinner, she had to tired to do that, Josh just held her and she ate a sandwich at the hotel. This was a great last full day in San Diego, we had so much fun as a family and giving Abi new experiences! Next we were off to Encino and Chino Hills area for the weekend.
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