Our day @ Sea World...

Yesterday was our first entire day in San Diego; the weather was gorgeous!  Lot's of sun everywhere!

We decided to visit Sea World; it was time the boys reacquaint themselves with Shamu... my niece Paresa accompanied us on our visit.

First thing we did when we got into the park was to walk over and see the whales in their holding tanks.  Usually whenever I've been, the whales tend to stay back away from the glass surface, but for this occasion they were up close and center.

LOVE this picture! 

It makes me wonder what the boys were thinking about the animal behind the glass....

 Paresa & Ian...

did I mention how difficult it was to get a good picture of the boys 

standing still in front of the animals??

  We spent about 45 minutes watching the whales swim by...

the boys were fascinated by them...

if I were alone, I would spend all day watching them.

 I had to laugh about this picture;

 it kind of looks like Ian's trying to get away from the whale and Paresa's holding him back.  

Predator hunting prey...

Not really the case though...

he was just anxious to race alongside the whale.

What was the #1 animal Noah longed to see at Sea World???

The flamingos.

Don't ask me why.

They're smelly and loud;

you'd think for a kid who complains about the smell of his brothers poopy diapers 

he wouldn't want to hang out by the flamingo habit that reeks, 

but NO...

we spent a good half hour observing them...

I had to finally had to beg him to move onto another exhibit;

my stomach couldn't handle the foul smell any longer.

 Watch out kids!

Shark overhead!

 I got a little spooked thinking that the only thing separating me and my kids 

from man eating sharks was a wooden railing and a 3 foot rock wall.

Shouldn't we have all been wearing chain link body suits in case any of us toppled into the water???

Even if there was a life guard on duty in the encounter,

I'm pretty certain he/she would think twice before jumping into those forbidden waters.

These sharks can do some pretty good damage;

they're not like the ones we see at the Sandy Aquarium in Utah... 

those are nurse sharks and leopard sharks, just nibblers...

the same kind you see in the water here at La Jolla Shores early in the morning when the waves are calm.

All 3 of these guys would have just been snacks for this prehistoric shark...

 Why so gloom Mr. Sea Lion???

He didn't seem too impressed upon meeting us.

 I'd love to know how many hours during the day polar bears sleep???

Not the polar bears that live in the wild,

but Sea World's polar bears.

I seem to only ever see these guys just lounging around.

 This guy woke up for just a few minutes to consider taking a swim in the pool...

...but before we knew it,

he drifted back to sleep.

  Ian LOVED the polar bears!

I had to stop in say "hello" to these guys...

we became friends some 13 years ago when I used to work in the Penguin Encounter gift shop.

 This Beluga was missing it's tutu...

it looked like it was curtseying

and reminded me of a ballerina.

 When we arrived at the dolphin encounter;

these 4 dolphins (below) swam up to the glass

and watched my boys...

 ...at one point there were 5 dolphins lined up next to the glass peering out at my boys.

It was so funny & yet odd at the same time.

Usually if the dolphins come and wait by the glass like that

 their trainer is near by,

but there wasn't a trainer around.

I think maybe the dolphins were just fascinated by the boys faux hawks.

Let's face it;

it's not every day you see tiny little people with fancy faux hawk hairdos.

Those dolphins hung around, lined up by the glass, for at least 10 or so minutes 

while the boys looked on.
 I got some great pictures of the dolphins while they watched the boys.

  

We enjoyed our time at Sea World and the boys were asleep with in minutes after leaving the park. I had a good laugh later in the evening when I remembered something Ian told me at the manitee exhibit; we were standing around, watching the manitees eat their lunch when Ian came up to me and started pointing out the different manitees swimming around. He's in this stage right now where he likes to classify things big & small and compare them to "daddies", "mommies" and "babies". Anything that is really big, he call's the "daddy"; things that are medium in size are "mommies", and little things are "babies". He took one look at one of the manitees and told me it was "mommy"! I laughed a bit then and later, wondering whether or not if I should be flattered or upset a bit; my son just compared me to a "sea cow"!