Nicole and I spent our first full day in Orlando at SeaWorld.
Our major goal was to visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and we decided to do SeaWorld as a second choice, and are we ever happy we did!
It was the BEST DAY EVER. Seriously. After our respective weddings and the respective births of our children, I think SeaWorld is next!
We ditched any idea of traditional January-ness and got Florida-fied.
Do we need to bring a sweater? NO!! It's 9:00 am, 20 degrees and heading to 30!
We posed for obligatory flamingo photo poses.
Fla-freakin'-mingos! I think that every 10 steps or so, one of us would grab the other one and say, "I can't believe we're here!!"
We were, undoubtedly, the most appreciative people at SeaWorld that day!
Next, we stopped to pet the sting rays.
They are delightfully velvety and blubbery all in one.
I think this is Nicole actually saying, "I can't believe we're here!" as we visit dolphin lagoon.
They are so kind and gentle.
We met Shamu.
He's very photogenic!
Oh, Shamu! You are so silly!
Best. Day. Ever. And, it's only 10:00 am!!
Dancing with Shamu!
We did some browsing. Man, do I wish I had actually bought this.
I look good.
Nicole, seriously, how could we have left these behind?
I guess we'll just have to go back!
The aquariums were exquisite.
Here, the sting rays were swimming above us.
They looked like they were flying.
Beautiful.
And, so amazing.
Everything was just so amazing to see.
All of the animals remind you of just how big the world is.
I mean, check out this sea dragon... like a leafy seahorse. Isn't every one of God's creations a miracle?
Nicole and I went to Shamu's Stadium to see the Shamu family of killer whales put on a spectacular show.
Even as adults, it was getting hard for us to talk ourselves out of quitting our jobs to become animal trainers and to live and work at Sea World!
The only thing that outshone our complete and utter awe in visiting all of the animals at SeaWorld is how completely dedicated every single staff member and trainer at SeaWorld was.
It was beautiful to see the relationships these people had with the animals.
They clearly loved the animals, and the animals loved them.
As one of the trainers explained, every single one of these "tricks" the animals do is a choice... a completely voluntary movement.
There is no way to MAKE an animal as big as a killer whale do anything... they must want to.
As a teacher, I believe that the education system could learn a lot from animal trainers!
After the Shamu show, Nicole and I booked our supper plans... pictures are below!
The next show we saw was Blue Horizons.
This was a circus performance held above water, featuring dolphins, macaws and other tropical birds.
When my girls saw these pictures, they said they want to be dolphin trainers. Me, too.
Aaah!!
In the early afternoon, we got a behind the scenes tour of the Wild Arctic area.
It was unfreakin' believable, and one of the best exeriences we splurged on in Orlando!
We got to go behind the exhibits to the trainers' quarters to be up close and personal with the sea animals.
Say cheeeese, my seal-happy little friend!!
Both Nicole and I had sore faces from SMILING! It was the best day ever.
We got to reward the animals with fishy treats.
Catch!
Aw. One last belly rub!
Next... belugas! Freakin' belugas!!
They are so delightfully blubbery and intelligent. All of the animals are so smart!
This trainer had us giving the belugas visual commands, and they were so very smart.
Another belly rub!
This beluga went waaay back.
And then came in when we pretended to "fish!" Smile muscles!!
And this was the icing on the cake!
Garfield... Garfield!! Garfield, the 3000 pound walrus gave us each a kiss!
And then, we got to give Garfield a fishy.
Look at his happily closed eyes!
Smack!
Schluuuuurp!
Then, we capped the whole magical memorable day with at Dine with Shamu, the best dinner theatre on the planet!
We had a massive buffet, complete with all entrees, dessert and drinks, plus the SHAMU family!
Best. Dinner. Theatre. EVER.
This is taken from our table!
Oh, SeaWorld, how I miss you.
I can't wait to bring the girls there some day, but going there with Nicole was something that we'll never do again, and I'm so glad we took risks and really DID SeaWorld.
3 comments:
Enjoyed reading your Blog once again. You and Nicole seemed to have had the time of your lives. So nice to see you two take advantage of this great opportunity . Mom
How great to be able to mix 'business and pleasure' so successfully!! What a wonderful opportunity for the two of you. Your smiling faces said it all!!!
MM
Looks like a blast! And that was just Day1??!!
Cool. Grace would ahve sore arms from flapping ALL DAY over the animals! LOL!
Kel
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