My apologies for taking so long! I'm afraid life has gotten a little crazy here at the Abbott house!
We've had some long overdue projects that we've been working on with the nice weather and all. Work has been hectic as well as the kids' after school stuff..
Anyhoo!! Here is the rest of my Sea World report:
I found my missing Turtle Trek pics, so I will share those first.. We really liked that exhibit so much! I think that the kids, Buds especially, being so INTO it made it the most enjoyable! Buds still carries around his little turtle he got at the gift shop there! He especially likes making it kiss people.. I never knew sea turtles were so affectionate!
This is apparently the only male sea turtle they have at the park. It is a different type of turtle then the ones at the tank. The girls were convinced that he was a statue because he was so still. Turtles apparently nap.. a lot.
This is such a perfect example of my kids.. notice the girls posing so nicely (they just HAD to touch the statue which I'm fairly certain wasn't allowed) and Buds wouldn't turn around because he just HAD to try and touch it too!
And here is the turtle picture made out of jelly belly's that was in the gift shop. I'm always impressed by people who creatively use food to make art.. I could never do that. I'd just eat the jelly beans. Jelly Belly's are my favorite!
Okay, so I have to say that Sea World was beautifully landscaped! I mean, it is just gorgeous! If I lived in Florida, I would want my house landscaped like Sea World.. complete with giant, shoe wearing flamingo statues and a waterfall just like this one:
So, Hubs was taking the two older girls on the water ride again, so Boo, Buds, and I wandered towards the kids play area. That was our rendezvous point and where we were going to end our day at Sea World!
We wandered past the flamingos again and I couldn't resist taking a zillion more pictures and wondering if it was illegal to have one as a pet and if our dog would try to eat it. This one was SO CLOSE that I could have reached out and touched it. I wanted to, but didn't. Part of me was afraid that they would be mean and attack.. like emus do.. (don't ask).
As we were walking, Buds kept wanting me to take pictures of stuff.. I think he caught me picture taking bug and would say, "Cheese it Momma! Take pitcher!" and point at stuff! This was one that he was particularly excited about:
I don't know if it was the water or the random bird he was excited about.. but whatever it was, he was impressed.
Once again, I am blown away by Sea World's creative, whimsicle, yet elegant landscaping! I don't understand why we don't have shrubs shaped like killer whales in our front yard. I think I might have to fire our lawn care guy (ahem.. Hubs).
So, we made it to the kid's play area and rode the carousel. Afterwards, Hubs and the other girls met up with us. There were a ton of small kid friendly rides and Buds was in 7th heaven!
I took him on the train ride, as he is also a huge fan of trains, and I somehow took over the role as guardian for some random little boy. I'd say he was an older three, not quite four year old. He wanted to ride in the front with Buds, which was fine by me.. I was too big to fit in there and had to ride in the little car right behind him. When the train stopped, he started to get off on the wrong side and no one stepped forward to stop him.. so I did. The woman manning the ride thought he was with me and was shocked when I told her no! I'm pretty sure she wouldn't have let him ride alone had she known. Finally, an older guy walked up and the boy ran off to him, but I honestly think that guy had walked off and left that boy by himself on that ride!
I took the girls on a little roller coaster (which was puny compared to Hippogriff, and yet Buds was not allowed to ride it) and had the most wonderful conversation with the sweetest family. Actually, come to think of it, I've had numerous pleasant conversations with random people on our vacation. I tend to be more social then Hubs is and it blows his mind how I can possible strike up conversations with just anyone.. but it seems like it happened MORE while we were in Florida! Pretty sure it is because it is such a happy place, you know? People are happy to be there and it makes them more open and friendly!
The roller coaster was "so awesome" according to Boo Bear, who I have come to believe that will be the one to sit the scarier rides out when our family goes to amusement parks in the future.
Oh, random jellyfish hanging baskets in the kid area that I simply MUST have in my backyard. I must.
After the roller coaster, we met up with Hubs and Buds.. they were watching these performers who were so cool! They played drums and danced and stuff! Buds was way into it!! We only caught the last few minutes of the performance, but I was pretty into it myself!
At this point, we started heading back to the front of the park to leave when we remembered that we hadn't fed the dolphins! So we rushed over there only to miss the last feeding.. it was closed.
I was pretty bummed, but I was worried about Pod being disappointed because she had really wanted to do it! She took it well though, and said she was happy she got to pet sting rays and feed sharks.
We didn't get to do everything there.. it seemed like we missed some of the other shows by just a few minutes and a few of the things had a long wait that we didn't want to deal with. Honestly, I didn't plan out our day hardly at all.. we just sort of played it by ear. Perhaps if I had planned it better and did more research, we would have been able to do more and maybe had a more enjoyable lunch!
We had a GREAT time, but I think we need to go back! The kids and I loved Sea World and would go back in a heartbeat. Hubs.. well, it isn't his favorite. He enjoyed the roller coasters, but Sea World has that zoo vibe that he just isn't into. Kids and I love zoos, but Hubs.. not so much.
One sad thing about the day. I lost my favorite sunglasses. No clue what happened to them. Sigh. Gosh, I guess that just gave me an excuse to go back to SUPER TARGET!!
We left Sea World and decided to have dinner at Bahama Breeze! I've got to say, I was floored by how LATE things stayed open in Orlando! Restaurants close by around 10pm here.. in Orlando they don't close until 1pm!! I'm guessing it is because of the amusement parks and vacationers??
Anyhoo, it was late but we were all hungry. I gotta say, the food there was phenomenal!! Hubs got the Jamaican Jerk Chicken that he said was outta this world! I got a veggie sandwich that was to die for! Their spinach dip was delicious and the kids said their mac n' cheese and lemonade was the best they ever had! I ordered a drink called a Zombie and it was super good, although I was a little woozy afterwards because it was STRONG! Highly recommend this place! It is a chain and there was one in Louisville, but sadly it closed down..
Yet another reason we should go back to Florida.. we'll just add that to the list!
Poor Boo Bear fell asleep at the table, so we left as quickly as we could. The kids literally fell into bed half asleep! Hubs and I were pretty exhausted ourselves!
We were looking forward to going back to Universal the next day though!!