A day at SeaWorld it is – or was!
The bit of rain we did get today didn’t
dampen any of our fun; and we even managed to learn a few things in and around
the shows, play time, and extreme or family-friendly rides.
I’ll be honest and admit that I have mixed
feelings about places like SeaWorld, zoos, and most other businesses that keep
wild animals caged. The problem is that
I’m part of the problem; since I loved getting to see so many of these amazing
creatures up close and in a way that most people would never have a chance to
experience any other way. That’s exactly
how I felt at the Disney Animal Kingdom too, and I guess the only reason I
didn’t mention it in that journal update was because the captivity is much more
obvious when you’re looking at a killer whale in a big pool. I’m not even consistent with my own thoughts
on this; since I didn’t even think about this while watching and learning about
the smaller fish and other sea-dwellers in the aquarium tanks. When it comes to animal rights; it seems that
size does matter for me – and we probably shouldn’t even get started on what
some of us had for dinner tonight!
Leaving that little ethics issue aside, I
loved the two shows that we went to see – Blue Horizon, which we went to in the
morning; and One Ocean in the afternoon.
We all wandered around the park together pretty much all day, and this
time; we took turns going on the extreme rides.
Rain is not a big deal when you’re going on water rides that are going
to get you wet anyway, and we timed that fairly well; while also being prepared
to get changed before going out for dinner anyway. The teen and adult boys in our group didn’t
have a problem with their favorite girls getting wet while wearing shorts and
tees; though Aunt Leanne stayed away from the extreme water rides for obvious
reasons. We all had our moments of wet
today, though, and almost none of that came from the little rain showers that
we mostly dodged or were indoors for anyway.
While we didn’t do everything at SeaWorld
today, we did get to everything we wanted to see and went on most of the rides;
so we were good with heading out of the park at four and going out to dinner at
a ‘real’ restaurant. Surf and Turf was
an option at the place Mom and Aunt Leanne picked out for us; and Michael, Tim,
Rowen, and I picked out a few different things and then shared the platters so
that we could try a bunch of different foods.
The parents did the same thing, and we all shared with the twins, Naomi,
Aiden, and Zack; but the five kids also had meals from the kids’ menu. Sitting down for a non-fast food meal was
really great; and so was getting to still have some more play time at Universal
when we got back there after dinner.
Making that couple of hours of fun
teen-only had been the original plan, but we had four junior ride enthusiasts
wanting to go along; and Michael and I couldn’t resist their hopeful looks,
hugs, and kisses so we took them with us and left the parents with only Zack to
take care of while we were busy. That
decision meant that Michael and I had to stick to kid-friendly rides, but that
was okay with us; and Rowen and Tim stayed and played with us except for one
detour for one extreme ride fix while the rest of us went for another visit to
E.T.’s home world.
After getting back to the hotel again, we
went for a swim; had a bedtime snack and drinks in Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s
room; and then we all headed for bed. Two
out of four teens temporarily got mixed up as to which beds we were supposed to
be in; but we corrected that little mistake – once Michael and I, and Rowen and
Tim, had finished spending some quality couples’ alone time together and were
ready to actually get some sleep.
Rowen’s already there as I write this, and
she didn’t stay awake long once she was ready for bed and we were both tucked
in for the night. We only had a short
chat before she dozed off, but I’ve been keeping busy with a bit of family
business work that was waiting for me to deal with in my email inbox. That took a while, and then I took my time
doing the rest of my usual nightly computing.
There were a few emails from home and New York too; and I’m sure that
everyone in our family is having a nice break – or at least those with the time
off are. That wasn’t thanks to the
weather back home, which was cooler and rainy again today; though that wasn’t
much fun for the kids and teens back home.
The rain did make for one change in plans
there. Violet and Dillon apparently
switched up their plans and they went to Witch Falls yesterday to spend a
couple of days with his parents, and then they’re going back to Woodvale on
Friday for the weekend until they need to head back to school on Sunday. We would have missed them either way, and it
means more driving for them; but they’re hoping to have nicer weather on the
weekend to spend that time with Chris, Martin, and Dawn.
This is going to be the shortest report of
the week so far, but that isn’t because we didn’t have just as much fun as we
have every other day we’ve been here.
Tomorrow we’ll be spending the day at the Islands of Adventure side of
the Universal Park; starting with a visit to Hogsmeade and Hogwarts. While I’m definitely looking forward to
another day of extreme rides, there will be lots for the kids to do too with
the kid-rated shows and rides. One added
bonus about going there tomorrow is that both parks are open an hour longer on
Friday and Saturday nights; so we’ll have even more play time to enjoy – for both
of our last two days in this amazing place.
I should get to the napping part of the day
so I’ll be ready for all of that fun and excitement, so I guess that’s all for
tonight; and, until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
