Great West Adventure - Day 5 - Moist and Deep

Man, I have to start doing these as they happen. This is my third log today!!! To get me through it, I’ve gone to the fridge to finish off my San Diego brew sampler with a Karl Strauss Brewing Company Boardwalk Black Rye. Tasty!!!

Today’s plan was to go to Seaworld. We figured we would do things a little differently today since we completely missed supper yesterday, so we opted for a smaller breakfast of Subway sandwiches and Starbucks. After breakfast we headed north to Seaworld, San Diego.

Much like yesterday, Seaworld seemed pretty dead. To start the day we were walking right up to anything we wanted to do! Later in the day the park filled up a bit more, but it is definitely nice to be here “off season.”

We started out in the penguin habitat where we got to see a trainer feeding some of the penguins out front. Interesting things we learned about penguins included the fact that Seaworld is the only place in the Western Hemisphere where you can see Empire Penguins, and that some birds can dive up to 1700 feet, almost twice as much as a killer whale!

We then went to see an educational program on Shamu - it turns out Shamu is more of a code name for the killer whales than the name of an actual whale. There was once a whale called Shamu, she was Namu’s partner in the Pacific Northwest, the first two killer whales purposefully captured and kept in captivity. They gave us a little bit of a peek into some of the training methods they use with the whales - quite impressive.

Most of the day was spent attending shoes, from the sea lions and sea otter show, to the dolphin show, to the Pets Rule show, then back to the Shamu show. The dolphin show was particularly good, and the sea lion show was a family favorite. The kids had their ebbs and flows throughout the day - we did get a quick lunch, but the kids waned in the early afternoon hours while we hit show after show. Later in the afternoon they rallied as we started doing rides instead of shows. Ethan, Quin, and I went on Journey to Atlantis, a combination flume ride and roller coaster. Quin just qualified to go on the ride, so he was pretty excited. Jenny didn’t want to go on it, however, since we stood a good chance of getting wet. When it was our turn to board the boats, Quin advanced towards it and tripped, hitting his face on the side of the boat. Looked like it hurt, and the waterworks came on. The people manning the ride were a bit concerned, thinking he was afraid of the ride. I checked to see that he wasn’t bleeding, then convinced him that he wasn’t hurt, and he came through to smile before they would let the boat go off. It was quite a ride, quick drops, splashes, dark caves, then it went out of water to a roller coaster area. Lots of fun. Quin was all smiles. At one point he looked at me and said, “that was awesome!”

We again spent the entire day in the water park. When we got out of the park we drove downtown for our first glimpse of San Diego proper and got a quick dinner at the Edgewater Cafe. The kids were most likely overtired, and that translated into them being very loud and acting like robots for quite a long time. When we got back to the room at 7:30, we put Quin in his pajamas, brushed his teeth, then kept him still for about 30 seconds before he crashed, which brings us to now. Ethan is complaining that we aren’t letting him go to bed, so Jenny and I are heading into the other room to entertain ourselves while he goes to bed on the couch - that’s right, Jenny, Quin, and I are sleeping together on the king bed in the bedroom while Ethan occupies the couch by himself. I suppose that’s why they call it a trip instead of a vacation when you travel with your kids…