Day Eight - SeaWorld

Slept in a lot this morning.  All these theme parks must be slowing us down. We missed breakfast but that's OK cause we got the eat all day pass for SeaWorld! 

Got to SeaWorld about 5 mins after it opened.  Went and had breakfast (breakfast bagels, milk and watermelon - breakfast of champions!) then we decided to hit our first show - Sea Lions Live.  It was hilarious and very entertaining.  Then we walked through shark reef (and under it).  Saw the Turtle Reef (there was a HUGE guy there that was 150 years old!!!)  Then we headed over and saw Dolphin Days show. 

I'm kinda sad that there are animals in captivity that do the things they do but I will say that I was glad SeaWorld is stepping up not only it's conservation efforts and captive animals awareness but I'm glad they are educating people about it too.

The dolphin show had Pilot Whales in it which I had never seen before so that was pretty neat.  After the show we went over to Explorers Reef.  Now this was totally awesome.  There were 4 pools and you could go and touch whatever was in those pools.  They had cleaning fish that nibble at the dead skin on your hands, they had horseshoe crabs that look very prehistoric, they had all different kinds of sharks that you could pet.  Those pools were definately a highlight for us.  We kept coming back to them. 

We saw the One World killer whale show.  Kels insisted we sit in the splash zone.  Got some good pics.  Then we headed over to the manta area.  You can feed the manta rays!!!!!  It was so unexpected and amazing.  So we did and it was pretty cool.  You stick tiny dead fish between your fingers and lay your hand flat and they come along over top of your hand and suck the fish right up like a vacuum!  One accidentally thought my hand was part of the fish and sucked on the top of it just below the knuckles but it didn't hurt or anything. 

We rode the manta ray roller coaster, saw the freshwater fish aquariums, enjoyed the wild artic exhibit with belugas, penguins, polar bears and walrus and ate.  Park closed at 5pm so it was a early night for us for once.  Or was it?

Kels drove us over to Balboa Park.  Now this was very interesting.  The park itself is 1,200 acres but it houses the San Diego Zoo, multiple museums, several theatres, several gardens, the San Diego Art School and various other gift shops, resturants etc.  In 1915 San Diego held a Panama - California expo and many of the buildings were constructed.  However they were not supposed to remain standing after the exposition and so were not constructed of long lasting matetial.  Since the exposition was such a hit and even Roosevelt approved of the architecture, it was determined that the cost to restore them would cost only a slight margin over any cost to demolish them, work got underway by the generous donations of San Diegans.  Some of those buildings still stand today.

It was very interesting to walk through even just a small portion of this park.  There was a graduation ceremony going on in the Japanese Friendship Garden.  We saw a guy playing a very cool instrument that sounded like Australia, people jogging with their dogs, street cart witnessing in a foreign language (dunno what), people dressed up to go to one of the theatres and people picnicing on the grass.  It was such a lovely night for it too.

They we came back and still had tons of time to relax.  Probably what we need.  We've had a very very busy last couple of days. 

Up next: San Diego Zoo

Signing off...