Sea World on Spring Break

When I woke up Thursday morning I heard rain and thunder. I heard wondeful Uncle John opening the garage and moving their cars into the rain. Then he came and asked us for our keys so he could move our car into the garage. He is so nice.

We ate a quick (meaning it took about 30 minutes) breakfast of cereal and fruit. John and Diane gave us a little more stuff to put in our bags to eat during the day (I packed things for lunch which I was told at security that I wasn't supposed to take in, but because of the weather she wasn't going to make me go back to the car) and then we loaded the kids in the car and were off to Orlando.

After about two hours we arrived, paid for parking and headed to Shamu land. It was cloudy and misting when we went in. John gave us two of his yellow poncho's to use and I regretted not bringing our Niagra Falls ponchos. As we headed into the park, I asked one of the park people if all the shows would be open with the rain. He said they don't close for rain, just lightning. Just then we heard thunder. Great!

It started to rain, so our first stop was the nearest gift shop to buy five ponchos. There went the advantage to the yellow shirts. I was glad, again, that Eric had purchased yellow hats. We put the hats on top of the poncho hoods and continued our day's Sea World adventure.

First stop, sting rays.
We weren't supposed to touch them because of the weather.
It probably made them more tempermental. I don't know.

We hid under the canopy for a little bit. When the rain stopped a little we moved on. Can you guess what these are?

Not sharks. DOLPHINS!

We got there before Dolphin Cove officially opened. At nine, the caretaker person came and opened the walkway and instructed us to take off our ponchos. The dolphins like to play and could grab them. Thankfully it had stopped raining for the moment, so we de-ponchoed ourselves and moved to where we could pet the dolphins.

The kids all got to pet a dolphin.
I even got to pet one, which I wasn't successful at my last trip.

The dolphins would come up and roll on their backs
so you could pet them. This one was behind the gate
so it was out of luck.

They were ready for their morning feeding and kept checking us for food.
Eric is showing this one there was nothing to eat.

We were told not to touch them on the face. One of them came up and I thought I was petting it in an appropriate spot, even though it was on his head (it was behind his eye). Well he didn't like it and took water from the pool and spit on Graigry. I thought it was so funny. Graigry not so much. I think Aurora also got a little wet. How many kids from Indy can say a dolphin spit on them?

From there we went to the...

Manatees

We'd seen these at Homossassa, so they weren't as cool as the other things.

We saw a sign that said the dolphin show was at 10:30, so we decided to head there. We wanted to try to make all the shows and with the weather being tempermental, and only two show time options, we hit this one first.

It started out on time and the kids were loving watching the girl playing with the dolphin.

Then there was lightning in the area so the show was postponed until further notice. We waited for a few minutes and then decided to head to Shamu Stadium as it's first show was at 11.

The first orca to swim around the tank and introduce itself to the crowd.

Sitting in the splash zone.
Neta would come to regret that decision.

Coming out to take a bow,
or lift a tail.

We love watching these giant mammals do their tricks.

See Shamu. See Shamu jump.
See Shamu land with a big splash.
See Neta come up to Mommy upset about the salt water in her mouth.

I wish I could download the videos of the kids getting splashed and then one of Neta saying how much she liked (not) the water in her mouth.

It gave me chills to see these amazing animals.

When Shamu was over, the kids were even more wet than before and Neta kept spitting to try to get the salt taste out of her mouth. Xela had some residue as well, but she didn't spit as much.

Happy Scotts under statue Shamu & the rain

On our way out of the stadium, they were passing out free game passes. So each of the kids took a pass and tried to hit the level to get the toad to jump onto the lilypad.

Neta getting a little help from Daddy.
I don't think any of us came close.

Then it was time for lunch. It was raining pretty hard so we found something that was semi covered, a play ground with sand boxes and drums.

I made some sandwiches, passed out fruit bowls and juice boxes.

By this time we were all pretty wet, and Nate's teeth were chattering, so Eric wanted to head somewhere enclosed and warmer. We decided to visit the sharks.

In the shark tube.

Neta looking back through the tunnel.

Under the belly of a great white shark,
and we were perfectly safe! :)

Having warmed up a little, we headed to the next available show.

Watching the seal and walrus pirate show.
No soak zone here.



The Captain and his first mate, Slappy.

This show was funny.
Seals, humans, walrus and otters make a great comedic team.

Eric hadn't eaten much of our packed lunch, so he stopped to get something for himself and share with the kids. We also had some fruit snacks, granola bars, more cheese crackers and met a local squirrel looking for scraps.

Yea! Food!

Again, it was raining and Eric thought we should go into some shelter. The Wild Arctic wasn't much warmer than outside, but it wasn't raining on us.

Beluga whale in the background

Walrus coming up to say hello.

We saw a sleeping polar bear and weighed our whole family on one scale to see how we compared to the sea animals.

It was close enough to shamu show, that we didn't want to leave (hoping the show would be more like the one that Eric and I had seen when we were out in Florida), but we had enough time that we decided to find another show, hopefully indoors. Success was found in the pet show.

Dogs, cats, ferrets, pigs, mice, ducks and other pets were all part of this show.

The dog pulled up a "1 ton" weight to reveal this message.
Everyone got a kick out of it.

Then it was time to return to the last Shamu show. It wasn't as good as the first one. "Shamu" didn't come out like in the first one, but we still enjoyed it.

Yellow hat family (minus mommy) picture.

Four whales swimming in circles.
One was a mommy and baby.

Thoroughly soaked and happy after a long day at Sea World.

We left the park, got to the car and took socks and shoes off before getting into the car so our feet would have a chance to dry out. We grabbed burgers at McDonald's and headed back to Crystal River and Uncle John and Aunt Diane's house. I don't think Nate made it through his burger he was so tired. It was a very fun and long day.

Friday morning we thoroughly cleaned out the car, including a good vaccumm, before heading back to Tennessee. We spent Friday night at the Walkers again. Saturday morning we watched the first session of General Conference before heading back to Indy. We can't wait to go back and visit.

On our way back home, about two hours out I think, it was time for dinner. We saw a sign for Abe Lincoln's birthplace and a subway so decided to stop. Eric decided we'd take a side trip and go see the landmark (especially as our son's middle name is for Abe and he is one of Eric's heroes).

After a 30 minute tangent, we arrived at the location only to find that ...

I think his home is in the background, but as you can see...

...it was closed. We weren't the only ones that wanted to see it. I think three other cars pulled in and turned around. We decided to pull out our sandwiches and eat on the other side of the sign.

Chicken teriyaki sandwiches on flat bread, YUMMY!

We packed in the car again and finished the last leg of our journey. It was around 10 o'clock when we got home. Kids who were awake, brushed teeth and headed to bed. Eric and I unloaded the car, I started a load of laundry and did a few other things before Sunday and we were in bed around midnight. It was a long drive and a wonderful spring break. Returning to reality was not as much fun as we'd hoped, but at least we had Sunday Conference to enjoy the spirit and prepare us for it.