Eclectic Parent

Day 3 of our homeschooling CA trip. One day definitely isn’t enough for Sea World. We started at the arctic area - beluga whales, polar bears, and a huge walrus. The kids really enjoyed watching the whales and walrus swim in the underwater window. On the walk out there was a wall of ice to show how cold it is in the water for those animals. Everyone liked touching the wall and C even stuck his tongue to it - which I only learned about after looking at the photos!

After the arctic we split up from the group and headed over to the penguins. They have several different kind but it was on moving walkway so we sort of zoomed by. Still it was lots of fun to watch them slip into the water and swim around, leaping back up on ice to do it all again.

From the penguins we headed to lunch at met back up with everyone. Then the big kids wanted to go a spooky show so B and I walked over to look at the flamingos. We saw the usually bright pink ones and then found some light pink ones over by the manta rays. They’re called Lesser Flamingos and are honestly little girl pink - B thought they were fantastic. She and I then wandered over to see the manta rays. She had gotten to the point where she would touch the manta rays at the end of their stay at the Phoenix Zoo but wasn’t interested in touching these. So we wandered downstairs to watch the moray eels and manta rays under water. The eels gave me the creeps but she had her nose to the window delighting in how they went in and out of the holes. “It went in! That one came out!” The gracefully gliding rays didn’t catch her attention nearly as much.

We met back up with the boys and then went to see some shows. First the dolphin show. The jumping was very impressive. After than we went to Clyde and Seamore’s Risky Rescue. The kids wanted to sit in the front row while daddy - and the camera - went a few rows up. A few minutes before the show began B decided to head for the higher ground and stay dry. So D, C and I sat right in the center of the front row. The show is very funny, but when the mean get wet, they mean it. I know the bigger shows splash but this was much wetter than I remember. D thought it was great fun and once C got over the shock, he thought it was hilarious. From there we headed the orca whales. D was convinced he wanted to sit in the front row again. We kept trying to explain just HOW wet you got for this one. We finally walked him into sitting about six rows up but there was no one in front of us. All I can say is SPLASH!