Dia Del Sea World

So weekend before last - as soon as the girl finished up her 8th grade finals - we hit the road for a mini vacay to San Antonio. Kicking off the summer this way has kind of become a tradition and the timing was perfect because Baylor was hosting Diadeloso at Sea World that weekend, which meant a super good deal on tickets. :)

And it also means that we made a 3-hour drive with a baby who abhors the carseat. She was really pretty good, though, until the last 30 minutes. Stop and go traffic did NOT help in case anyone was wondering. I sort of wanted to tear up myself. 

But I didn't. And we eventually made it to our hotel and headed to happy hour in the lobby for some refreshments with friends who were meeting us in SA. And then we all went to dinner at Texas Land and Cattle. Which is where grilled asparagus and I fell head over heels in love. We've seen each other again since. And the second time was just as amazing.

But I digress...

Anyway...the next morning we headed to Sea World and, after some annoying issues getting info about tickets and a tour we had purchased, we set about the business of seeing some animals. Starting with the dolphins and the aquarium. We then hit the backside of the park (before it got crowded) for the rollercoasters and penguins. Which led us right into the Baylor picnic lunch time.

Clearly Baby S was thrilled. She just wanted to eat and sleep.

Ok, mostly sleep...

...but we finally headed to our first show - our favorite is the sea lion/walrus/otter performance - and...

...after suffering through the pre-show...

...they had technical difficulties and had to cancel the show. This would be the extent we saw Seymour.

Aren't they cute?

Anyway, the good news is that the tour we had secured was for the sea lions so we got to hear about them from the trainers...

...take a pic with ol' Seymour (what you can't see is that he's smiling - it was hilarious)...

...and feed the little (big) rascals...

...or at least the ones who weren't catching some rays.

On a related note, I wanna be this guy. Cruising around holding onto a sea lion.

Once we wrapped up the tour, we met our friends over at Azul where the baby decided, "hey, this looks FUN!" Seriously. She was mesmerized by the bright colors and the dolphins.

I'm still a sucker for a good beluga, though.

 

And, of course, we had to see the star of the show - Shamu! And his six best friends who look just like him! Hands down the best orca show I've seen at Sea World. No kidding.

And this guy was GINORMOUS, friends. Watching him do flips in the pool was like watching the law of gravity just disintegrate before our very eyes.

And to say someone was mesmerized by Shamu and all the lights would be the understatement of the century, friends. She LOOOOOOVED it!!! 

And so did the big girls. Such. Sweet. Memories. :-)