We waved good-bye to the ship as we passed it. It was sad to leave, I'm especially going to miss our cruise director Stu. He was so funny that morning, getting on the overhead and whispering into it for us to wake up. He was really cute - Mom and I both really enjoyed him.
It didn't take us long to get to Sea World from the dock. Maybe twenty minutes or so. Mom bought our tickets and got us the backstage tour and we were informed upon buying the tickets that we would get to see the baby dolphins so we were excited about that. When we got inside the gates I saw the other backstage tours where you actually got to interact with the animals and I signed up for the Arctic Adventure Tour and finished signing up just in time to join our group for the backstage tour.
Our tour guide took us back to see the dolphins and their babies first. One was less then a week old and it was so cute. The moms were teaching their calves how to swim and how to come up for air. Then we got to see the eels, some rescued sea lions, and then he took us back to see their flamingos and the endangered parrots they have there. They take their flamingos out for a walk every morning - so that was quite fun to learn about - all of the flamingos at the park were nesting, and we got to see a few chicks as well, some of them only a couple of days old.
After that we stopped at the pizza place to have lunch. I was quite entertained by a little duck that kept wandering about snatching up pieces of breadstick that people were dropping for it.
We decided to go to the Shamu show first, which was really neat. Despite some annoying lady who kept standing up in front of me and the people on the bench in front of us leaving in the middle, after talking the whole time they'd been there. But it was fun to watch the killer whales do flips and give their trainers rides.
We had to rush to the sea lion show after that and made it with a few minutes to spare, just long enough to see one of the "crew" members entertain the audience with quite a collection of old TV show theme songs while he put on different costumes and wigs. My favorites were Batman and Sponge Bob Squarepants, just because all the kids knew that one well so they screamed it really loud.
The sea lion show was probably my favorite show of all the shows we saw that day. They were so funny, and very entertaining. I didn't stop laughing the whole time, and the little otter they had helping was so cute. They did all kinds of shows too - from Superman to American Idol, to a cooking show, to Survivor. It was a lot of fun.
We went to the shark encounter after that - I had fun standing in front of the great white shark jaws because it looks like I'm being eaten. Mom did too - although she said she felt like she was being eaten by jaws. We went to the penguins after that and they were so fun to watch, they look like they are flying under water they are so funny.
After the penguins we decided to go see the clydesdales horses. They are the biggest horses I've ever seen in my life. I didn't even come up to their shoulders. I got to pet them and have my picture taken with them, but mom didn't want to.
By that time it was getting close to when I needed to be at the Arctic giftshop to sign in and get ready for my tour. So mom and I went over and I signed in and pretty soon had to leave mom behind while I went backstage with our tour guide.
We went to see the walrus first and that thing was so big. His head was huge - I don't think I imagined it to be that big, but it was like three or four times the size of my head. The trainer had him roar and everyone but me jumped, I kind of laughed at that. Then we got to feed him fish one at a time and then he'd kiss us as a thank you on the hand. I got a hicky from him - my hand was pink for three days. We also got to touch his whiskers and they are really rough, I hadn't expected that.
Then we got to see where the polar bears sleep, we couldn't go in because only 18 specially trained trainers are even allowed to go back there, if you aren't trained you aren't allowed because polar bears will eat anything, humans included. We watched while one of the trainers went back and got the male to stand on his back feet - he was easily nine feet tall and his paws were the size of dinner plates, he was huge. They took us over to the side and passed around some polar bear fur for us to feel, showed us the size of their skull because they had one over there, showed us the length of their teeth and talked a little bit more about what makes a polar bear so special it was really interesting.
Then it was time to get suited up and join the trainers in the pool for the beluga whale experience. We got in the pool and were split into two groups because there were eight of us. One of the first things we did was got kissed by a beluga whale on the cheek, then we had them dance, sing, shake our hand, roll onto their backs so we could hold their tails, pulled them onto the ledge then pushed them back into the pool, got in a water fight - which I lost badly, and had them wave. It was so fun and the beluga whales were so cute. They look like giant marshmallow men with beady black eyes. And for their size they are surprisingly gentle - it was an experience I'll never forget and one I'm so happy I took. Mike was quite jealous :).
After I got out and showered Mom and I went to the dolphin show and that was a lot of fun to watch as well. There was a woman there that was supposedly the mother of this little boy and the wife to the little boy's dad but it turned out she was a trainer. She was pretty clumsy - falling off her bench. One of the other trainers couldn't stop laughing, I guess that wasn't part of the act. We later discovered that she was a trainer when she "fell" into the pool and was "rescued" by one of the dolphins. But it was a trainer so that was hoax. But the show was fun anyway - I loved the dolphins.
After that we decided to get some dinner and head back to Paul's. I was tired and it had been a long day for both of us. When we got down to Paul's and I told him about my adventure with the beluga whales the first thing he said was..."Do you know how many germs and bacteria are in that pool?" When I told him I'd had a shower he seemed more at ease with the fact I was sitting on his couch. I went to bed soon after that, started a movie on my iPod and was asleep before it even began - lights on and everything.
No comments:
Post a Comment