Florida Trip Day 4 (Sea World)

Thursday January 23rd, 2020

Apparently Brandon should have purchased some soda crackers...

Our plan was to leave the resort at 9:00 am.  I texted my mom at 7:00 telling her about Brandon's night.  I checked on him about 7:45 and he hadn't thrown up since 6:00.  He agreed to eat activated charcoal and applesauce mix that stops vomit.  He didn't throw up again!

We left the resort just after 9:00.  I had two sick guys in the car with me and we were headed for Sea World.  Morale was great (not sarcastic, actually it was great) as we entered the park.  We took lots of fun pictures and the kids were in a great mood.  M was dealing OK with the ride situation.  He is no where near 54 inches so he couldn't ride the rides.  The 4 coasters there are massive and he just stared in envy all day.  The weather was cold again, maybe high 40's?  We entered the park at 10:00 (right when the park opened)

The photo of the day in case they get lost...

Then they decided to do a fun and sweet pose.  I love this pic!

Then they wanted to make a heart over Brandon.  You can sort of see the heart. 

When we got into the park we stopped to get park maps and then ran into two park employees holding birds.  T wanted to hold and touch the birds, but we were told they were just for pics.  They were pretty remarkable birds and we got to see them perform in the dolphin show!

T:  I got a park map!

The red bird didn't want to pose. 

We started the day with the Pet Show.  The kids loved it.  I remember watching and loving these shows when I was a kid.  The dogs and cats do so many tricks.  The kids were imagining that maybe we could train our cats to do similar things!

M and T:  We loved the pet show!

Next we went to the Dolphin Show and they really loved that.  It was so much fun to watch them be in awe of the dolphins.  Such joy to my heart!  

Siblings and their girls! 

I LOVE this picture!!!!!  

T: The dolphins could jump so high!

T:  I loved the show and will probably be a dolphin trainer when I grow up!

T: I got to be up close to the dolphins from the show!

Cousins!

The crew wanted to feed the dolphins but we didn't sign up for that, so we had to find something different to do.  We found the stingray petting area and camped out there for quite a while.  T got soaked petting them and would have been in the water with them if it weren't for Brandon holding her back.  After that we checked out the manatees and sea turtles and then headed to lunch.

T: Come here stingray!

T: Touched him!!!

T: Grandma Kathy and A liked touching them too!

T  needed to go into the bathroom and put on some other clothes after this.  We had a very fishy smelling backpack for a while.

M: These things are HUGE!!!

T: We liked watching them move slowly!

They eat A LOT of lettuce!!!

M: These sea turtles were HUGE!!

While watching the sea turtles the guys saw a bird dive for and catch a fish.  Then they saw the bird swallow the fish and they could see the lump of the fish in his neck!  Very educational!

M: You would not believe what he did next!

Sea World and Busch Gardens were doing a special promotion for online tickets where you could get a free meal with each ticket each day.  We got 7 meals at lunch time and 1 later in the day (since I stick to Lara Bars.)  The meals were portions were very generous so it was a great savings.  There was no waiting, nice indoor dining and even a gluten free bun for M.

M: The lunch was AMAZING!!!

We ate rather quickly as we really wanted to make it to the 1:00 Sea Lion show.  The Sea Lion show was super funny.  During the show it started to rain.  This was quite a bummer since we left our ponchos at the condo.

T:  I was excited!!!

Such a fun show!!

It rained all afternoon which dampened our moods and our clothes.  After the Sea Lion show we did the Antartica ride and penguin stuff. It was tricky to navigate in the rain. We had to wait a while, but the ride and experience are quite cool and very uniquely done.  Families get to ride in little pods so it feels like you are exploring Antartica. You watch movies about the penguins etc and then suddenly a wall opens up and you are with the real penguins.  At that point you get out of the pod and get to check out the penguins up close.

T:  There were lots of penguins. 

A little wet, but all smiles!

Wet and cold but thankful to be together.  Great photography dad!

Look at these guys!

We made a friend

T: I think they wanted to come home with me. 

They really did seem to like T.  It was pretty precious. 

After the penguins we spent a while in the Aquarium and  gift shop.  M was miserable with fever and overdue on needing meds.  He sat on the floor and the girls checked out cool rocks, sunglasses and Barbies. 

T: Someday I am going to get a pair of glasses like these. 

M and T:  The fish were surrounding us.

God made some crazy looking things!

Next we made our way over to the Turtletrek exhibit and 360 theater.  It was very interesting to see.  Brandon accidentally mistook another child for T and that was quite a funny/scary encounter depending on if you were our family or the stranger's family.

Next we checked out the manatee rehabilitation.  The gentleman we talked with was passionate about manatees and taught us a lot.

Such special cousin memories being made!

Next we went to Shark Encounter and saw lots of sharks through a viewing tunnel.  It was a pretty neat thing.

Lots of walking in the rain. 

These sharks were pretty cute!

Love the penny smashing souvenirs.  They are a fun experience and trinket.  The cranking of the machine is good OT too! 

M: We were surrounded by sharks!

Next up was a snack time before the Orca show.  We had an extra meal that several shared and there was a potty accident and wardrobe change to make.  The rain ended and we actually saw a rainbow while we were waiting for the show. We all enjoyed the Orca show.  It was a lot of teaching and training mixed in with the show, very different than when I was a kid, but safer for the whales and the trainers.

A rainbow!!!

So huge!

Teaching and training. 

Not sure getting splashed was too fun on this cold day. 

The whole family. 

Waving goodbye

After the Orca show we only had 35 minutes until the park closed.  We decided to check out Sesame Street Land and I am so glad we did.  It was brand new and so sweet.  I grew up watching Sesame Street so it was great fun for me to see the shops and signs etc. They met Big Bird and he sure was big! The area had a roller coaster that the kids rode twice with pretty much no wait.  They also did a very lame drop ride but they tried it out.  There was a little park area and we ended the day with the kids playing tag and laughing a lot.  We were some of the last ones to leave the park. 

T: He was really big!

Awww, I would have been star struck as a child.  

M and T:  It wasn't too big, but the line was very short. 

M and T:  We thought it would be more exciting than it was. 

M and T: Oscar sure was grouchy! 

We never ended up going to the Wild Arctic area or the Sea Lion swimming area. We also skipped the water rides due to the cold temps.  It was a great day and a great experience.  It is too bad that it was soggy, but we got to do most of the things we hoped to do. 

Once we got home we ate a late dinner (both the guys had scrambled eggs) and we all went to bed.  It was a full day.  Amazingly Brandon felt quite good all day.  He was weak and weary, but managed better than most.

We were excited for another adventure the following morning... a coach bus ride and a day at Busch Gardens in Tampa.