Revisiting Sea World

When we went to Sea World the first time this summer, we all got season passes, which means, of course, that we had to go back at least once in the summer to make sure we got our money's worth and all that.

The guys were working, so this visit, it was just me and the kids and Jenny Ford (and baby Ford, all nestled snugly in her mama's womb, but old enough now at 32 weeks to be an active consideration in our day).

My main goal was to go to the Shamu show. I had never been and it seemed a shame to come all the way to Sea World how many times already and never see Shamu.

It was pretty much amazing. Jack and I were on the edge of our seats the whole time. Sydney said that Shamu was her favorite part of our day and Mrs. Ford, who had seen the show before, still found it very entertaining.

After the show, it was time to cool off and hydrate the Fords, so we took a break for lunch and then walked over to the air conditioned aquarium. On our way to the aquarium, though, we took a wrong turn and found the Sea Lions, who had just had four pups. The kids thought it was neat to see the seals and sea lions, and yes, Sydney licked the glass. I don't know why either.

When we did find the aquarium, Mrs. Ford and Sydney went one way and Jack and I went the other. We met back up at the end and I heard Mrs. Ford and Sydney looking for the eel that is one of Sydney's favorite sea creatures. It turns out that it was right where it had been the last time. I guess that's the eel's spot.

Having walked to the Shamu theater and then back to the aquarium (with a wrong turn or two) in the hundred degree heat, we were starting to get very tired. At that point, we knew we were either going to go to the water park to cool down or just going to have to go home.

I know there are many, many adventures that I am bold about having with my kids, but I have to admit that taking them to a water park without their dad was a little daunting to me. But Jenny thought we could do it and I figured that if it went poorly, we would just leave.

We started in the little kid's area to get the kids cooled off enough to be agreeable to trying anything else. After the dunking Sydney got at Schlitterbaun, she was very loathe to try the lazy river at Sea World.

To avoid the lazy river (and yet to allow Jenny and myself to get in some water that was more than six inches deep), we tried the wave pool. We put both kids in life jackets and Jenny kept a watch on Sydney and I had Jack.

Sydney was not all that thrilled about the waves, but she decided they weren't terrible. In the end, though, it didn't matter because after being there only ten minutes, they had to clear the pool for a "contamination" incident. (I think that is code for "poop in the water.")

So we headed to the lazy river after all. Sydney was unsure at first, but Mrs. Ford showed her how she could stand in the water. "How deep does it get?" Sydney needed to know. Once she understood that it stayed roughly the same depth all around, she was very happy to be in the river and we went around three or four times.

By then, Jack was getting really tired and so we headed back to the splash area. As we walked over there, though, it started to sprinkle. Jenny and I conferred and decided that a little rain never hurt anybody, so we agreed to stay at the park and maybe we would just stay in our swimsuits so that we had dry clothes to change into later.

The kids played in the splash pool until the lightening started and then they closed the water park and we (and everyone else) headed back out to the main park.

Jack did fall asleep in the stroller and Sydney, when it was thundering, was just fine in the rain. But boy, oh, boy, did it rain!

I happen to love walking around in the rain and Mrs. Ford didn't mind it either. Our only complaint was that the rain lowered the temperature about twenty degrees and it started to feel quite cold in those wet clothes.

Before leaving the park, though, we wanted to go visit the dolphins in the rain. We had decided not to feed them the last time through, but this time we went ahead and paid for the food and got to have that experience again, which was nice.

From there, we changed into warm, dry clothes, and went to Cracker Barrel for biscuits and water and warm fries and grilled cheese sandwiches and macaroni and cheese. Yum.

It was a really, really, really long day... we left the house at 7:30AM and didn't get home until almost 10:30PM. It took us all of the next day and the day after to fully recover, but it was so very worth it!