Sea World

Over Spring Break, my mother and grandmother came to visit for a little over a week. At the same time, one of my good friends arrived in Orlando the same weekend for a conference. My friend, Chris, and I had already decided on taking the kids to Sea World, so the grandmas were able to come along for the ride.

When driving with Greg, most times he is the driver and I'm the navigator. I'm not always the best navigator, especially in Florida. When we were driving with my mom in two vehicles from Texas to Florida to get me settled in my new university, I decided to go by way of a shortcut. Shortcut ended up being the worst decision, think of a scary movie where the tourists take the wrong turn. OK, it wasn't that bad, but I certainly got a lot of flack for my decision. Luckily, my mom bought me a Garmin for Christmas so I won't be veering off into backwoods when trying to get to my destination. I really wish I had it when I decided to take the shortcut to get our Christmas tree a couple of years ago and ended up near Georgia. At least we got to see parts of northern Florida we would normally never see. When it came to Orlando, I thought we were probably no more than an hour from there and didn't bother to look it up. I thought, I see Orlando on the map when they are showing the weather, so it must be close, right?

I plugged in my friend's hotel address and Garmin states it's about 75 miles away. WHAT?? I guess I won't be getting there at 9:30am like I told her. And of course, that's 75 miles, not 75 minutes. Traffic!

Once we got there, all was better. Her hotel was directly across the street from Sea World so we didn't have much further driving to do. The weather was perfect. A little overcast, but not rainy and not overly sunny or hot.

 

I decided to let Hayden stay home with Greg since I didn't think he would be as manageable as the girls. Once he saw the photos, he was a bit disappointed, so he'll be coming next time. Plus, I really think he would have loved the sea life.

Riley and I on the flamingo paddleboats.

We had lunch at Sharks Underwater Grill. Our table was right up against a large aquarium filled with sharks, sting rays, and large fish. Taylor even recognized a couple. Seeing Shamu and the dolphins was amazing. We ended the trip with a stop at Dolphin Cover, a place where you can pet the dolphins. Riley wasn't paying much attention and just let her hand dangle in the water. Mr. Dolphin came by and decided those fingers might be little fish so he took a nip. Luckily, there wasn't much screaming or crying, more of shock. Taylor thought is was so incredibly cool that a dolphin bit her hand, although Riley had a different thought. At least there wasn't any blood.

On the ride home, the girls fell asleep immediately. I wanted to as well, but since I was the driver, something told me I couldn't. It was a long day, but a great one.

A couple of pieces of advice: Never wear white pants to a water park. I was lucky, but I cringed knowing what I could possibly be sitting on while in the flamingo paddle boat. And two: if you have a child that LOVES water like my Taylor, never allow them to dip their feet in a fountain. They'll end up swimming in it. Luckily, Sea World sells kids clothes and shoes! It was funny, though!

The moment before the dolphin bite.