Friday morning it was time to check out of Pechanga and head south to Sea World. Jen and Tanya made their reservations a month ago to do the dolphin intervention program and they each paid $170 to do this one hour program. They were so excited. We didn't count on the traffic to get on the interstate.
Road construction, so traffic was creeping along. Just before getting on the interstate they had two lanes of traffic merging into one. Also it didn't help that the traffic lights weren't in sync. I think it took us a half hour to hit the interstate. Once we got on the interstate it didn't take long to make it to Sea World. I am so fortunate that I have my sister to give me great directions. She would be an awesome navigator for you. Who needs a Garmin when I have a Mary.
We arrived at Sea World around 10:30 am, paid to park and had to follow the parking attendents instructions. We were naturally parked in the south 40, walked quite a ways to get to the ticket gates and waited in line to pay our admission. It was probably 11:00 before we actually stepped foot in the park.
Our first stop was the dolphin program place, when Jen and Tanya made their reservations they didn't get the same time slot. We went to see if there were any cancellations or possibly a trade to get them in the same time slot. No deal. In the long run it worked out best as I was able to get great photos of both of them.
Our first stop was to watch the dolphin show and we sat in the splash zone. We didn't get wet at all, just a few sprinkles. The man in front of me shielded me from getting too wet. It seemed like years later the show was longer. I know it hasn't changed.
From here we made our way to the Shamu show. Again sitting in the splash zone, the two girls sat in lower rows than I did. I sat in the very last row of the splash zone and in front of the shallow part of the pool. The girls got wet, but I didn't.
After that we just wandered around waiting for the time to check in for the dolphin program. I was able to get great photos of them and both girls said that it was worth the money they paid. I didn't think so. They didn't actually get to swim with the dolphins, they did get in the water and touch them. They were able to do some tricks with them. They were probably in the water for about 30 minutes. The first 20 minutes were spent getting their wet suits on and listening to the instructions.
They even bought the professional photos for $35 each. As long as they were happy and I did enjoy watching them. I took alot of photos.
After this event we just wandered around and then we ate at Ship Wreck Reef. It was a cafeteria style place and we got some good food. My sisters did call and wanted to hear all about the dolphin experience. We rode on a couple of rides. I rode on the Wild Artic ride but the two girls rode on the Atlantis ride too.
Seeing the animals of the Artic, people got a lesson in nature. The beluga whales were mating and it was very interesting to see. It was funny because there were some very little kids wanting to know what the whales were doing. Well, they were dancing. I guess it wouldn't have been too bad, but the two whales mating were both male. One guy made the comment "You can tell they are California whales".
When Tanya figured out what was going on she left right away, it was funny. She said that was disgusting. In the meantime the female whale was just swimming around without any bother.
Before we knew it, it was time to go. Jen and Tanya spent time shopping and then it seemed like we had to walk sooo far to get back to the car. We spent the night at Mary's house and we got to Murrieta just before 10:00.
All in all it was a wonderful day and you can see my photos on picassa.
1 comment:
I'm so sorry I didn't go with you! I was so exhausted from the wedding though, I was just a puddle of nothing on Friday. I'm glad you had such a good time! The girls were on cloud nine when they were talking about touching the dolphins.
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