Day Six: Sea World

This morning we hopped on our bus to San Diego.  Surprisingly we were again with Australians on the bus.  And amazingly they were from Wollongong and had recently moved to Canberra.  Even more amazingly, the lady I spoke to had attended St. John Vianney's primary school in Fairy Meadow.

An hour drive had us arrive at our hotel in San Diego at around 10am.  Again, the hotel was generous enough to give us our room early.  We got settled into the room and then decided to go to Sea World.  It was a short cab ride away.  We got there in time to catch the Shamu show.  What an experience!  We were in the Soak Zone and we got soaked when the killer whales swam by and splashed us with their tails.  I hadn't thought it would be such a special experience, but it really brought a smile to my face, as well as the kids. 

I love this photo!!  One of the only ones I got where I didn't just miss one in the air!

Llike this one - there were 3 whales in the air and I just missed!

We then went to the Petz Rule show, where they had trained all kinds of animals to perform a show that was funny and clever.  I can't believe they could train cats, ducks, emus, kangaroos and pigs to do the tricks they were doing.  It was really pretty amazing.  All the cats and dogs were rescued from shelters and there was a strong emphasis on making sure you rescue a pet when you get your next one.

We walked through the penguin experience which was set up just like the penguins in the zoo in Happy Feet.  They were gorgeous, but stinky!  Then we went on the Wild Arctic experience where you were strapped into a seat in a room made out to be a huge helicopter.  A screen then showed footage and you felt like you were in a helicopter flying over the Arctic.  After we got off the "helicopter" we went to see beluga whales and polar bears.  It was freezing in there, and there was a wall of ice further along in the tunnels. 

We had ribs for lunch.  Nothing special really, wasn't really impressed with them.

Then we went through the shark experience, but honestly, the sharks at the Sydney Aquarium are better.  We walked out of there to a big flock of flamingos.  The kids loved those.  We were able to feed them as well .  They were really fun to watch and we stayed there for quite a while.

They seem to love each other as much as they loved the flamingos!

Next up the kids decided we were going on the river rapids ride.  We were sitting in a round craft with a tube around the outside and thrown down a river going over rapids and stuff.  Somehow I ended up the most drenched of everyone...  The kids wanted to go again, so off they went while I stood in a fabulous invention - a whole body dryer.  By this stage the sun was going down, and it wasn't so warm out! 

They got off the second time, completely soaked.  Two towels were purchased as well as two new t shirts...

Back to the hotel and room service pizza.  Yum!

End of Day 6.  Tomorrow San Diego Zoo!