California Adventure Part III

Off to Sea World we went on our next day. The drive wasn't too bad - like an hour and a half. Other than the constant "are we there yet" that began 5 minutes after we left, we actually enjoyed it as Dylan and Jayden saw the ocean for their new first time. They both loved playing on the beach in New York, but nearly 3 years have passed since they last did that, and it was like seeing it for the first time all over again. Dylan was the most excited about it.

At Sea World I went to pull out my camera for some pictures.... and nothing. My battery was 100% dead. I was so devastated. Luckily our iPhones have a camera. Not great, but better than nothing, so at least we have some record of our fun at Sea World.


Awesome. I am trying to remember what this is from. A megalodon, I think.

Riding manatees is so much fun!

Austin had to get in on the fun. Notice the hand that the manatee sprung on its bottom side.

While we were playing on the manatee we got a fun experience of having these flamingos walk past. Literally. There was nothing between us and them. The Sea World people were taking them somewhere - it almost looked like just for a walk. The people walked behind them, and the flamingos seemed to know where they were supposed to go. I thought I got a picture of one right next to Jayden - I think it even walked around him, but my camera must have been to slow, because I'm not finding it. But still - it was fun to see.

Here we are waiting for the sea lion show. It was so fun - I wished I could see it a second time, but we didn't get the chance. The last sea lion show we saw was at the Atlantis Aquarium in Riverhead NY, and that show was absolutely dreadful compared to this one. We laughed so much here!

We love petting the rays. We used to do this all the time at the Atlantis Aquarium. The ray pool there was the one of the best things they had and tough to beat. This ray pool is nearly as good, and the rays did come where you can reach them well. All the boys loved it!

The killer whales was one of the main reasons we came to Sea World. Dylan loves to learn about things so much, and I knew how much he would love to see this show. When they were cancelled for about a week, we were debating about whether to come or not. They do the show again, but no one gets in the water with the whales anymore. Kind of a bummer - but the boys didn't know they missed anything.

Again, I am so bummed I only had my iPhone. I could have had some really fun pictures, but this will have to do!

Apparently because of the tragedy, they have also taken the whales off display. In the tank where the whales should be, we only found these dolphins. The boys still had a lot of fun.

The boys got a little crazy here, and were running back and forth, trying to race the dolphins. I think the dolphins enjoyed it, too. They seemed to come by a little more once the races started.

The polar bears were something Dylan really wanted to see. When we went to Hogle Zoo last year, they weren't out at all.

I really wanted to take the boys to the beach, and I originally intended to spend at least half a day at the beach, but we ended up filling our days will theme parks because we couldn't decide what not to do. So as we left Sea World, I hurried and called my Mom to find out how to find a good beach. Growing up she spent her summers in San Diego because my grandpa would work on the Marine Base (or Army, or Navy, or whatever you call it) each summer. So she sent me to Coronado Island - right where the base is. Its only like 10 minutes south of Sea World, so it was perfect. She loves the beach, and was wishing she was with us, and said how she would live on the beach each summer. We ended up driving to the Base, and found a beach right next to it. You can see the fence of the Base behind us if you click on the picture to make it big. This picture above is Dylan.

In the foreground is Jayden, and Dylan in the background. The sun was setting quickly, but we had lots of fun racing the water back and forth. Ethan was worn out from Sea World, and fell deep asleep on the short drive, so I held him the whole time on the beach. He did wake up, but still had me hold him. He laughed and laughed as we ran away from the waves.

Dylan and Jayden got caught in the water, and they loved it. They were soaked by the time we were done, but it didn't matter. I brought clean pajamas for them, so I let them get as wet as they wanted. It was so nice to let them run and play, since they hadn't had much of that at the parks. It was such a wonderful end to the day!