Morning came WAY too quickly on Thursday, May21st. Whose bright idea was it to schedule a breakfast meeting at 7:30a the day after we arrive, when we are technically on vacation. That is bullsh*t, I tell you… wait a second, I think it was me. Dammit. We actually made it to breakfast early, though one of our guests decided that sleeping in was more important than seeing his friends (great job, Ross!!) It was great to catch up with Mike and Ross and find out what’s been going in San Diego. We had a LOOOOOOOOONG meal at Coco’s, due to the impeccable service that we received! 14 cups of coffee later, we headed back to our room to change and head over to Sea World.
I love Sea World. It s a great place to people-watch and going before summer gets here means that we didn’t have to fight too many crowds or kids. But I gotta tell ya, the shows were pretty disappointing. Moreso than I remember them to be, anyways. For example, the Shamu show is now themed “BELIEVE” and it centers around this Marketing Department-inspired B.S. story about this boy who carves a whale-tail out of wood and wears it as a necklace. He paddles his kayak into the ocean and he is created by Shamu, who swims around him, jumps over the kayak and otherwise frolics with him in the water. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty sure that if there was a killer whale swimming around me and I was in a kayak, there would be quite a mess to clean up in and around my shorts… and I’m fairly certain that the kayak would look like a seal from under the water and Shamu would gobble it up without giving it a second thought… but I digress. So, they create this story and then they build this whole “if you believe, you too can be one with the animals” message that culminates with a ridiculous number of vendors walking up and down the aisles during the show selling….wait for it….. yes, selling WHALE TAIL necklaces. I don’t know a parent out there that wasn’t bombarded by “can I have it daddy PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE” from their kids. It was ridiculous.
And not that I don’t appreciate the splash zone, we sat in it. But didn’t it used to be that the splashing was done as part of the tricks that the animals were performing? Now they have, in both the shamu and dolphin shows, dedicated “SPLASH TIME” where they have trained the animals to douse the crowd with water using their tails. Not really part of the show, just “here, have some water kids!” Oh, towels are available for purchase for just $17.
All in all, pretty minor annoyances, considering we had a GREAT time. We pet all of the animals, fish and creatures that they would let us pet (Sea Stars, Bat Rays, etc.) We saw most of the exhibits and were able to see all the shows that we wanted to see. It was a breezy day and not too warm, so we didn’t wind up riding the shipwreck rapids or the other water ride. We had a great time and were back to the hotel by 4:30 to rest up before dinner.
For dinner, we went to Costa Brava , a Spanish tapas restaurant with a great wine selection and some delicious food. We were joined by our friends Scott and Pelin Thorogood, and it was great to catch up with them and hear all about what is happening in their world. After dinner, Scott & Pelin had to get home to relieve Grandma of babysitting duties, but De Ann and I stuck around to partake in another drink or two before catching a cab back to the room. A great day all around – we are fortunate to have such good friends and the opportunity to vacation like this. Life is good!
