Sea World

Or a day in the soak zone! It's always difficult to get two females on the road, so after I'd read the paper, made coffee, showered and shaved, gone to get a haircut, had my car washed, I came home to find Carolyn still in her nightgown and Katie still asleep. So after a conversation with Ashley in Scotland and the necessary preparations, we left home around 11 a.m. and stopped at I Love Bagels for a late breakfast or early lunch.

But the traffic on Saturday was terrible and I think it took 2 1/2 hours to make it to Mission Bay. We began our tour with the Manatees and then took in the Arctic Zone and the Shark exhibit.

Mid-afternoon we got some smoothies to ward off our hunger pains and then we went over to the Shamu stadium early enough to get third row seats which were clearly within the 16 row "soak zone". It's been a long time since I've seen these massive creatures perform. I'd forgotten how large (9,000 lbs) and how fast they are! His first lap around the pool sent waves of water over the lip of the pool to completely soak the kids who lined up below.

Then the trainers joined in by "riding" the killer whales as they did barrel rolls or leapt out of the water. A really amazing performance by both women (all the trainers this session) and whale.

After getting somewhat wet with Shamu, we decided to finish the process by taking Shipwreck Rapids. After a 90 minute snaking-line wait, we made it to our "raft" just as the sun was getting ready to set. We got soaked!! Water down Carolyn's back as we went down rapids and under the waterfall and my shorts and shirt were pretty wet as well. We'd seen enough, and we headed back on a much quicker trip to home where we all changed into warmer/dryer clothes and had a smorgasboard of leftovers to finish the day. A fun one at that.