First thing we did at Seaworld was race in to see the sea lion show. It was a Saturday night live type show that I wasn't thrilled with the dumb humor, but I was impressed with how talented sea lions can be. I don't think I've ever seen them perform before so that was a nice treat!
This was our first stop in California and in this first hour during the show, we melted to death! We were all dripping with sweat. It was SO hot!!!
One of my favorite parts that I don't want to forget is the shark tunnel. It was really cool! I loved seeing the underside of a shark and how spooky they look even when they're just swimming around.
I think the kids liked this sky ride more than the little kid rides. I especially loved it because of the breeze. It was nice to get a relief from the heat!
Tommy was SO cute at the Shamu underwater viewing area. He took Vic's phone and took a million really cool pictures of the whales bumping up right next to the glass. When we lost our camera I was grateful we had those pictures, only to find out Vic had deleted them all :( I think I enjoyed this area more than the actual whale show.
Seaworld was DESERTED! It was weird they even stayed open with so few people so we got to pick where we wanted to sit & never had to wait in line. The kids didn't want to be in the splash zone so we sat right behind it.
I was planning on waiting to the very end of the day to take the kids to the Sesame Street play area because I knew the kids wouldn't want to leave it once they got there, but Vic was anxious to please them and insisted we go earlier. We left our diaper bag in one of the rides with our keys, wallet and phones and lost & found said they didn't have it so we went the day without it.
We had to drag the kids to the dolphin show & they liked it, but they couldn't fully enjoy it because they just kept wanting to go back to the Sesame Street area. It was a fun show, but I still like the dolphin show at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago better.
The park closed at 5pm and everyone was hungry, but we couldn't go anywhere without our bag. The entire park was emptied out and we were running around checking bathrooms, bushes, & garbage cans to see if someone stole our stuff & ditched our keys. Finally we sat at the lost & found office and sure enough... a worker had it all day, but hadn't turned it in. That was frustrating, but we were sure glad we got it back with all our cash in tow!
The next day we went to San Diego Zoo. We definitely toured it backwards. In the morning we went through all the treetop trails and shaded jungle trails which was SO much fun! We had lots of energy and was shaded so it was great. In the afternoon we went through the desert and Savannah un-shaded areas & it made us even more hot & tired.
Here is the areas we were in, in the morning. We loved how we felt like we were in a jungle instead of just a bunch of cages.
Their monkey area was huge, which Vic loved because that is always his favorite. We both decided we loved this baboon the best.
After the monkey area, we went to the tiger trail. We went first thing in the morning so we got to see all of the animals eating their breakfast.
I wasn't sure how I felt about letting the kids see the lions & tigers eat their big bloody breakfast!
These hippos were so much fun to watch!
The baby hippo was feeding out of it's mom's mouth so it kept looking like they were kissing or the baby was getting eaten!
The apes & gorillas had a nice huge viewing area.
This panda was probably our favorite animal of the day. He was first laying on a log and then right when we got there he decided it was time to eat. Vic thought it was hilarious how he sat down right in front of us & stared at us as he ate his grass.
I was excited to see my first koala bear, but they are not near as cute as I had hoped. They were so tiny and there was a lot of them, but they were all laying around in the trees sleeping with their heads turned away from us. There was just one that kept turning back & forth for us to get a quick peek!
By the time we got to the elephants, I was pretty tired and ready to go, but there was a volunteer there that let the kids touch a dried elephant tongue, foot, skin, and tusk. He taught us a lot of tidbits we didn't know... but now I've forgotten them!
The north pole area was really cool, but I couldn't find any decent pictures of it.
After that area, we were all pretty exhausted so we rode the skyride back to the front of the zoo. I felt so bad for Vic because they wouldn't let large strollers like ours on the ride so he had to walk all the way back.
I was so done, but our little Whitney had been looking forward to seeing her favorite animal... the alligator so we trooped on to see every last square inch of the zoo! The zoo was so big and definitely needs to be done on those little motorized scooters!
