Sea World Excursion

As noted earlier, today's plan was to go to Sea World. My mother bought us a couple of Sea World Fun Passes earlier this year, and we haven't had much opportunity to put them to use...until today.


We hit the road near lunch time, and made our way to my mom's place to pick up the stroller. We've got this monstrously large Eddie Bauer stroller that comes with just about everything but four wheel drive and a pintle mount for a machine gun. We'd only ever used it once before, with the car seat attached, but this time we decided to use the stroller by itself. As you can see, the boy seemed to be happy with his ride.

Our first stop was the seal exhibit. I took Stephen out of his stroller and let him see the noisy, raucous beasts in the pool below. Stephen was not impressed, and instead, he seemed downright disturbed by them. They were loud, so I can't really blame him.

We loaded him back up, and took a stroll to the shark encounter. Oh, boy! Fish! After parking the stroller, we joined the line and made our roundabout way into the shark building. The echoes of a hundred voices were amplified by the enclosed area, and Stephen started to get a little bit worried. As we ventured further into the place, his agitation became increasingly obvious. "Where are we? Where are we going?" he seemed to be saying.

There's a long, plexiglass tunnel in the Shark Encounter, with a conveyer belt of sorts for people to stand on. The sharks in the water above you swim by, and you can see them fairly clearly. The press of people was somewhat more pronounced, and several rude folks actively bumped and shoved my wife from behind. It was at this point that Stephen lost his cool, as you can see in this photo.

We got outside and found a quiet, shady bench. Things seemed to calm down a bit.

Where to go now? The park was absolutely packed to the gills (ha, ha), so it was hard to edge in to see the really interesting stuff. Tide pools? Folks were packed in three deep. The aquariums? Ha! Try again later, maybe, when the park is closed!

Somehow, we ended up by the Clydsdales. Sea World is, after all, owned and operated by Anheuser-Busch. They even have a beer school (though what they teach there, I can only imagine). Past a grassy enclosure that was home to single donkey (or was it a mule?) was the stable area, where several massive Clydesdales were spending their afternoons. These things are big! But they seemed somewhat docile.

Given the crowded conditions of the rest of the park, the Clydesdale exhibit was probably the quietest and most relaxing place we'd been all day. Sort of sad, especially when you consider that seeing the horses at Sea World was the highlight of our day.

We ambled around a bit more, just seeing what was where. A lemon icee took off some of the heat (Stephen liked it, too) as we made our way back towards the exit. We decided that we'd need to go again sometime, when the crowds were a bit thinner. After all, school is still out for a number of kids, and it's not exactly the off season.

As we made our way back to the car, I let Stephen ride up on my shoulders. The view must've been impressive for him, and he seemed to enjoy every minute of the ride. Eventually, he'll be big enough that he can ride and I won't need to hold on to him to make sure he doesn't tumble backwards. Until that day, though, I'll need to keep a hold of him.

That's about it. My last day of vacation is behind me, and tomorrow is another fun filled day at work. I hope there's not a ton of work waiting for me, but even if that is the case, at least I'll be busy. We all know that a busy day goes by faster...right?