Sea World

We hit Sea World on yet another perfect Florida day. We decided on this park because when we got the tickets at the discount place, they offered us a second day for free. Yet another part of the week full of surprises was that my brother, Fr. Aaron, was going to join us Thursday through Saturday and it was his park of choice. So we spent two full days packed with fun.

They offer some of the hands on kind of fun my kids adore. We all got to pet the stingrays and then...we also got to feed them. The kids started off a bit fearful of falling in but after feeding them, they were hooked.
As you can see by our attire, the weather took a much colder turn on Friday (highs in the 50's), which we were not exactly prepared for wardrobe wise.

The highlight of the two days for me was definitely feeding the dolphins. I've never done that before and it was beyond cool to have them eat out of my hand and then to be able to really pet them. When Mackenzie reached out to pet this one, it blew from it's blowhole into her face. That's how close we were!

The kids and baby Shamu had a mutual admiration society. They were standing there watching the mama swim around when her baby came right up to them to say hello. He stayed there for several minutes and continued to come back again and again. I think they thought they had a new pet.

Luckily for us, Uncle Aaron was more than game to ride the rides. Between my pregnancy and Nelson's motion sickness, we opted to let good old Uncle Aaron take them for a spin, and another spin and another spin. They thought they were big stuff with their hands up in the air.

This one was called the Flying Crab and shot up into the air and then bounced its way down. The kids were crazy about it.

It was a great two days. It allowed us time to see all the shows and to take our time seeing the sights. It also allowed Aaron and Nelson a chance to attend a beer tasting for free. Did you know Sea World is run by the Anheuser-Busch company? Beer, fish and fun! You just can't beat it.