Day 5 – Sea World

Reagan’s first “surprise” on the trip came today. We told her that since the shuttle launched as scheduled we’ve got a couple days left with nothing planned. W’d get up and just drive around and plore the area. When we got to the intersection of Sea World she saw the sign and read it. (It’s such a cool thing to have a kid who reads…but it’s also harder to surprise them). Sea World! (We didn’t even know she knew what it was…maybe she didn’t and the name just sounded cool).

Us

Being low season we parked right up front and basically just walked in. Being in the military, we got in free. Thank you Anheuser Busch Company. We saw lots of animal shows and rode lots of rides. Reagan even rode her first roller coaster, with her hands up most of the time! They’ve got a junior jet coaster that kids 42″ and over can ride. Reagan just barely meets that requirement.

The shows were cute. There was one about a pirate ship and buried treasure that starred sea lions, an otter and a walrus. There was one about a princess that starred dolphins. There was one about “believing” that starred killer whales. They were all awesome. And for each one we sat in the splash zone. Partly because we realized at the first show these were the best seats we were going to get. And partly because Reagan wanted to get wet (in fact, after the last show–the killer whale one–she started crying because we didn’t feel one drop…not that the whales weren’t trying).

Click on the photo to enlarge and you’ll see the trainer balancing on the whale’s mouth.

There were lots of animal exhibits as well. Sharks, aligators, penguins, dolphins, I know I’m forgetting something.

Lunch…lunch! We decided to eat at the Shark Restaurant, or whatever it was called, because it was like we were sitting in a huge aquarium. Who cares if we had to mortgage our house to eat there. Here is what I had (enjoy this because dinner was leftovers):

Salmon Salad (Niçoise style): Grilled salmon on a bed of spring mix greens. Sides were diced strawberries, papaya and mango, red onion, avocado, egg, and Bud beer guava ramellade.

It was so good. Too bad Ashlyn fussed through almost the whole lunch and I ended up feeding her all my diced fruit. When is this girl going to shut up and behave in a restaurant? It’s as if restaurant high chairs touch some button in her butt or back that switches her into Baby Scream.

Du had scallops and a Land Shark beer, some mix between a Bud and a Coronoa. I had Pepsi, again, to drink. Is it too much to ask for people down here to drink Coke? What’s with the Pepsi hold on Florida? I’ll ask for a Coke with my meal and the waiter says (always in an apologetic tone so they understand) “we have Pepsi, is that ok?” I’ve quit answering with “sure” and have begun to say “I guess so.” What I really want to say is “go to the corner store and get me a freakin’ coke! I don’t want Pepsi!” It’s like asking for sweet tea and getting: “all we have is unsweetened…but we do have sweetener on the table.” We just give them a blank stare at that one, because what we’d say to them would definitely bely our attempt to show Christ to people.

During lunch we noticed a special shark in the aquarium. He had an unusual slope to his head and his teeth looked like ill-fitting dentures that were about to fall out of his head. Our waiter told us that he has shark osteoporosis and his cartilage on his back got broken one time. It can’t heal back because of the disease and therefore he’s just living on morphene. Not for too much longer according to the waiter. Pretty soon he’ll be swimming in the ocean in the sky, catch my drift?

Reagan’s first roller coaster ride. Boring if you’re OTF (other than family).