sea world: day one

Soon after Andi, Stef, and Gail finished their amazing race, me and the family headed over to Sea World. Since we had already parked (and paid to park) in the Sea World parking lot to get easy access to where the finish of the race was, Keith and I figured we should just head to the park then.

Luke was in serious awe of some of the exhibits we were able to go to. He has been obsessed with sharks recently so one of our first stops was to the Shark Encounter set-up. This was the first picture I was able to take when he saw a real shark for the first time:

Shark! Shark right thur da!

I loved seeing his eyes light up and the genuine excitement that was written all over his face. We were really lucky that at the time that we went, there was hardly anybody there so we were able to walk right in and take as much time in there as we liked. There were some absolutely huge sharks floating in there and I really think Luke was amazed at the true size of a shark. He'd only previously seen them on tv or played with a small stuffed shark that he has. Right now Luke is like a sponge, soaking up every new bit of information and he's really learning how to apply it to former knowledge. It was great when in the middle of seeing sharks, he said, "Shark in watuh." He made the connection of sharks being in water completely on his own, without any prompting from Keith or I.

Can't forget about Reagan! She was there with us, but let's be honest. I don't really think she cared one bit about what we were looking at. She ended up spending the majority of our time at Sea World wrapped in her swaddler, napping in the back seat of the stroller.

We found this great grassy area towards the back of the park. I just wanted to stop to take a few pictures of Luke here, but he thought the bench was a table. He sat on the curb and proceeded to say, "Eeee. Eeee." (eat)

This was the only day we ended up buying a meal in the park. I knew that it was going to be pricey to eat there, but we wanted to experience it at least once. Luke loved his Oooo-ooo (Shamu) cup.

This was a really neat area that was a replica of a California tide pool. You're able to put your hands in and touch the sea life in there. Luke had a great time exploring the starfish, sea urchins, and sea snails. I'm pretty sure he would have stayed there for hours had we let him.

We were only at Sea World for a few hours that first day, but we had a fabulous time. The weather was a perfect 70 degrees with a slight breeze and there was hardly anybody in the park. I think that most everyone was scared off by the massive amounts of people that were there for the race. It actually worked out to our benefit, so I'm not complaining! And by staying for only a little while, Keith and I were better able to plan how the next few days would work with visiting parks, meal times, and nap schedules. And now on to the beach...or so we thought...