July 10th: We are here!
We got to Seaworld right at 9am after driving about 40 minutes from our hotel. Have I mentioned how much we LOVE our GPS? It has saved us so much time and worries abut finding the locations we are going to. We missed a turn while heading to Seaworld and ended up at the coast...I wasn't complaining, it was overcast, windy, and the waves were AMAZING!!!! Anyhow, thanks to the GPS, it just rerouted us, and we got to Seaworld just fine, no issues. So again, thank heavens for the GPS!
Anyhow, we had our tickets already printed up, and got checked in rather quickly. We hit up the bathrooms and took some pictures before applying the kids' tattoos with our cell phone on them and having a detailed talk about staying together. And with that, we were striding under the big wave and heading into the heart of Seaworld!
We stopped at the pools right in front of the entrance first while Jared and I studied the map to plan our course of action. I was super impressed with how excited the kids were just to see the leopard sharks, feeder fish, and crabs! What were they going to think when we saw the cool stuff? LOL!
They all tried to touch, but only Jordan and I were brave enough to actually do it.
The park was really not very busy for the first few hours, so we got to several key attractions very quickly. We started with Wild Arctic. Jared took the four older kids to the motion ride, and I went with James and Jackson straight to the polar bears and beluga whales. James loved the helicopter!
Both of the bears were out when we got to the exhibit. This one was pacing the log back and forth, over and over, and he kept coming right up to the window, which gave us a great view!
The other one was sitting on a huge stump right next to the window. James sat here for quite a while just watching him...it was then that I noticed James' hair matches the polar bear's to near perfection! Kindred spirits!
Playing in the polar bear cave before the huge growl scared them out of it!
So, I'm kind of obsessed with beluga whales. They are my favorite animals on the face of the planet. They are just....magical. I could watch them all day long, and both James and Jackson seriously, seriously shared my sentiment. When we finally left the viewing area, Jackson pulled out of Karianna's hand, shrieked, and laid down on the floor-not crying, he just laid there and looked up at Karianna, as if daring her to try to make him leave!
I took tons of pictures of these guys watching the whales, and I have to include all of them....did I say I love beluga whales? I do!
Every now and then the whale would circle over to the window and literally rub up against it as it passed-those were the coolest moments!
Up close and personal!
You can literally see the body of the whale pressed up against the glass!
My favorite shot-you can see the whale's eye and the line of his mouth, as if he was personally saying hi to us!
We met up with Jared and the older kids after the motion ride was over and they had their chance to greet the polar bears and whales up close and personal. We could have spent all day here.
Saying hi to Jared!
We took this same picture many years ago when JD was just a baby and Karianna was a little girl-not even 3! We sure have grown!
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