Day 16: Sea World Memories

 

On Monday morning we got up and (eventually, and kind of slowly) went and picked up Cindy Lynn at the airport in San Diego.  We were so excited to see her and tell her all about our Sea World fun from the previous Saturday and talk about the things that we wanted to do that day.  I had decided on Saturday that buying $lunch$ at Sea World was a bad use of our financial resources, so we had sandwich makings in the car with us.  When we got to the Sea World parking lot we made sandwiches and ate lunch before we went in.  Then we went into the park, picked up Cindy Lynn’s wheelchair (which keeps her from getting overtired, or at least as overtired) and we were off.  And I mean OFF!!!!

There are some ways that Cindy Lynn and I are very different.  But in this way, we are exactly alike.  WE LOVE SEA WORLD!!  Many years ago in Sunday School (and I may have posted about this before) a thinking-outside-the-LDS-box kind of guy suggested that if we have a particular affinity for some part of creation, then perhaps we had a part in assisting in that creation.  If that is so, I can tell you exactly where I was and what I was helping with: ocean water, beautiful fish, dolphins, and whales.  And Cindy Lynn might have been right there with me.  (Russ was helping with the sea turtles—I am certain of it.)  All of that to say again that we really really love Sea World.

We started our day by riding Atlantis again—the water/roller coaster ride. 

Because Cindy Lynn was in a wheelchair we got to go to the handicapped entrance.  We were a little puzzled at first when we got into the boat there and wondered how on earth we were going to get over onto the regular tracks.  What happened next took us by surprise.

As you plunge over the first (and biggest) drop on this ride a camera snaps your picture.  Then when you get off and walk around to ride again (should you be so lucky as to be there at a time with no lines when you can just ride over and over again) you look at the screens to see your picture. 

I’d almost gotten one of the pictures on Saturday but then realized that what I really wanted was a picture with Cindy Lynn in it too.  And I was determined to get a good one.  Unfortunately every time we rode the ride, Rachel ducked her face just as the camera took the picture.  We ran out of time and had to go on to the next thing, which was the dolphin show.

Cindy Lynn was so excited to see the dolphin show that she had loved so much when we saw it in Florida years ago.  The little kids enjoyed it, but she & I sat there in ecstasy.  (Seriously not an exaggeration.)  Here are some of the highlights.

Or you can see the full dolphin show here.  (We bought the dvd so we can watch it at home and pretend we’re still at Sea World.)

Next we moved on to the Sea Lion Show.  We were so excited for Cindy Lynn to see the pre-show—it had been hilarious when we’d seen it on Saturday.

The sea lion show itself had some funny moments too.

Next on our agenda was the other water ride, Shipwreck Rapids.  Because it was a slow day at Sea World (yay for us!) we were able to ride the ride 5 times in a row without even getting off.  We were drenched by the end.

You really can’t see how wet we were in the pictures, but we were ENTIRELY soaked.  Dripping water from hair to shoes.  Fortunately for us they had people-sized driers we could use, for a small fee of course.

Our last show of the day was the Shamu show and it was fabulous again, of course.

If you’re interested, here’s a recording of the whole show.  It’s just talking until about minute 5.

The most magical moment of the day happened as we were walking past one of the dolphin training lagoons.  There was music from the dolphin show playing in the background, and we noticed that a few of the dolphins were jumping.  As we stood and watched, all of the dolphins in the lagoon swam and jumped, over and over.  Sometimes one at a time, sometimes two, over and over.  Cindy Lynn theorized that they were enjoying the music and responding to it.  Whatever the reason, it was so neat to stand there and watch this impromptu show.  I made a deliberate decision not to grab my camera so that I was about to fully watch and be in the moment, and it was amazing. 

As soon as the Shamu show was over we hurried out of the park so that we could go back to the guesthouse to change our still wet clothes.  Then we headed north on the 5 (don’t we just sound like San Diego natives???) and went to dinner at our friend Megan’s house.  Megan lived in our ward in NC and was one of our friends who threw Cindy Lynn’s bridal shower.  She made us a delicious dinner and we loved holding her baby and talking with her.  It was a great end to a wonderful day.