Trip Day 5: Sea World

So on to Day 5 of our trip. By this point I must admit we were all getting a little worn out and over stimulated. It's a bummer that put a damper on Sea World because it was really cool. But we had seen a lot already and the boys particularly were getting burned out. It was a bad omen to dress them in a shirt that said "When you're this cute, it's okay to be this crabby" as well. Oh well. We got up early and made the drive down to San Diego where we stayed overnight. Arriving at Sea World we made the unfortunate realization that I was given bad information and the strollers were not in the car. I didn't want to pay $17 to rent one (probably a bad choice) so we just let the kiddos walk all day. We hit the Bay of Play first and of course it was awesome. Really if we could have stayed there all days the boys would have been perfectly happy. There was just so much more to see and with mostly adults in our group the play area got dull fast. We next watched the dolphin show which was really fun. Such amazing creatures. The sun was right in our face and I got a bit of color--something I was actually excited about since it was snowing back home. We then saw the penguins and arctic animals. The Arctic Expedition was my favorite area to visit, there is something so majestic about polar bears and beluga whales to me. Seeing them under water made it even better. Carter watching the walrus swim

A polar bear eyeing the tasty morsel that is my son.


Carter buggy climbing the "ice" in an area that turned out to be off limits. Whose mommy doesn't know how to read signs? We headed over to the Journey to Atlantis ride which my fam enjoyed okay, I skipped because of the drop, and Lowell skipped because he was too grouchy. We skipped the rapids ride too, didn't want to get wet when it wasn't all that warm so a bummer all around on the rides. We headed back to the Bay of Play to give the boys some free play time.
Carter on the spinning ride. They really loved this and the day seemed a little brighter after that. Next we picked up lunch and sat down to watch the Shamu show, my favorite part of the day overall. The whales really are so awesome and the way the show is put together kept giving me goose bumps. Here's a couple of shots:







And here's C&D today singing the Shamu chant. They got a real kick out of it but I was happy we didn't get wet. Lots of other people got soaked!

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We next headed over to the tide pools which were fun, the aquariums which were sub-par in my estimation--our local aquarium was better than that (the park as a whole of course was much better but the little individual aquariums weren't great), and the rays. These rays were super friendly and amazing creatures. Here's Hillary and Davis petting one.

Lastly we watched the sea lion show (funny) and then headed out completely exhausted! This was Lowell and my "night off" so the boys headed one way with my family and we headed the other. A special thanks to Cyndel who shouldered the biggest load of watching the boys, and also Robbie and Hillary for their help. Lowell and I found our hotel in La Jolla and got checked in and chilled out for a minute. We really needed to unwind. We were close to this landmark, one of my very favorite buildings in the world:

The San Diego Temple. This shot is from the freeway! I've heard it has caused a lot of accidents as people round the corner and are shocked at what they see. It's too bad we didn't have time for a session, I have never been inside. I still think it is gorgeous though! Here's the view from our hotel balcony:

Lowell and I went and had a long dinner at P.F. Chang's. It was busy so the service was slow but we didn't mind. It was delightfully quiet. We headed back and watched The Office and 30 Rock (so funny!) before we passed out. In the morning we treated ourselves to the hotel breakfast which, unfortunately, I promptly threw up. I don't know what was up with me this trip--I was sick so much of the time! I hated to waste the money for breakfast but took some comfort that at least I wouldn't have to count the calories!