San Diego Day 3---Sea World

 Every morning while we all got ready and ate the girls would sit on their beds and watch a show and sometimes eat their breakfast.

I think this day was the one we were all the most excited about and it did not disappoint. Now just as you go in the entrance gates there are several small areas where there are different areas where the kids can touch different sea creatures. This first one you put your hand in and hold it there and several little fish come up and eat the dead skin cells off your hands...slightly odd but cool at the same time. Gracie did it for a second but Hallie wouldn't put her hand it at all.

 Next they got to pet some small sharks both girl were pretty nervous about this one but had a good time watching Matt do it

The girls were so excited...mostly Hallie about everything the flowers and the penguin we had to get pictures of all of it. Gracie was a little more hesitant observing and taking it all.

Then they were both quick to notice the rides and there were no lines...my kind of rides. I get horribly motion sick so I opted to not do many rides and the ones I did do spun in ways I didn't expect. The kids loved the rides but lets just say they weren't the highlight of my day.

Then there was a giant playground that the girls played in briefly it didn't hold their attention very long for sure

One of the first animals we found were the seals and sea lions. They had a stand where you could buy food(fish) to feed them we got a basket and took turns feeding them.

Gracie thought it was really cool and wanted to feed him all the fish in the basket

If you cant tell there is a little fish in Gracie's fingers waiting to be dropped to the hungry seal below

Hallie on the other hand wasn't so eager to touch a fish but after some coaxing she really liked it and wanted to buy another basket of fish to feed them

We had planned out our day to get to all the shows so next on the agenda was the sea lion show. The kids as well as Matt and I were thoroughly entertained and even got a little wet. 

After the show we quickly exited to get to the Shamu show before it started. We made it just in time. I had read on a traveler tip website to pack ponchos so you wouldn't get soaked. We sat in the 4th row so we decided it would be a good idea to get them out for the kids. Matt and I were roasting so we didn't care if we got wet. The girls quickly lost patience waiting to get wet and took them off. So I wrapped up my diaper bag and left it at that.

And this is the picture before everyone got soaked and I mean really soaking wet. I saw the people next to us get soaked so I quickly put Hallie's poncho back on just in time for water to come flying our way. Gracie briefly cried but after the initial shocked passed she said, "that fun."

After that we decided we would grab some lunch and stay for the rest of the day the girls were having a ball and not acting tired or whiny. We grabbed lunch and wandered through some of the indoor aquariums. The wind was blowing that day so they had shut down most of the rides and the ones that were open the girls were to little to ride....kind of a bummer.

On our way to the dolphin show we stopped by the encloser where the trainers were having them do tricks for the crowd. The girls leaned right up on the side to get a good look.

By now we were roasted and ready to get wet. We had taken a mister and it saved us when we got hot.

We decided to sit on the 2nd row since we really wanted to get wet. Hallie said this was her favorite show probably mostly since the story line included a princess.

This was a whale that was part of the show

The princess riding 2 dolphins

This is about where we got the most wet we had been all day and it felt so good. Once again Gracie cried briefly from the shock of the cold water but then we were all good.

Hallie with the dolphin princess

The we headed to shark reef where they had a cool tunnel that went through the middle of the sharks so you could see they from all over. Plus it was nice and cool in the building

Hallie suggested they do a silly picture but before Matt was ready she pulled her funny face and I had to include it this girl loves her silly faces.

Then a pic in a sharks mouth

Then we went to see the turtles. Hallie had been asking to see more turtle since earlier in the day when there was one in one of the aquariums

Notice the one by Gracie's feet

2 cute girls turtle watching at one point we saw 18 turtles

Gotta love that husband of mind and his snap pics

Our little family at turtle reef

Then we needed to stop for a good snack. I think there was just as much whipped cream as pudding

 But of coarse she wanted to pick off every sprinkle by hand

 Hallie on the other hand picked a cupcake with a gummy Shamu on top she ate all the frosting on top and threw the rest away...she is my child for sure.

Then we headed for cooler temperatures with the penguins. There were so many it was crazy we couldn't even count all of them

They also had some kind of smaller penguins outside the girls thought were cute...they were so fast

Then we got to see a walrus he kept swimming in a pattern against the window so the girls would count til he came back and then squeal and giggle....so cute

But then when he was so huge against the glass they weren't so sure what to think

The white whales we also cool they floated in the water very still almost lifeless for quite a while then they moved but only a little

Then our last stop...Shamu's holding tank,,,,so awesome. Hallie was memorized and would have stood against the glass for a long time but not Grace she was on the move and wouldn't really hold still, probably for fear she would fall asleep, we just laughed at that point and took pictures of Hallie while Gracie ate fruit snacks and chased the birds.

So cool one of my favorites from the whole trip

And then we were all ready to go home. Everyone was tired and hot. We headed to back to the hotel, ate dinner, got bathed, watched a movie, and headed for bed. Sea World was by far my favorite and if we would have had time I would have gone back again.