{Day 3} San Antonio

After a non-desired blogging break, my blog is finally working again! I'm not sure what was going on but I'm glad that it got fixed. On to day 3 of our vacation....Sea World! Going to Sea World was our main motivation for planning our vacation. We love watching Sea Rescue on Saturday mornings and despite all the Blackfish junk (yes, I've seen it, but I have my own opinion), I feel that Sea World does a lot of GOOD things for animals. I wanted to go while Eva was still 2 years old so that she could get in free so this summer was the perfect time.

Our morning started off with us hurrying out the door to try to get to Sea World 30 minutes early so we could pick up our tickets and be in the park by 10AM. Of course it took us longer than expected so we didn't get there early and it was one of those comical scenes when you are rushing to get someplace only to stand in line for 30 minutes. No worries, Eva made friends with two girls behind us and decided to hold their hands the whole time we were in line. She was only slightly sad when she realized we weren't going to be hanging out with the random family the entire day.

Our first stop was over to the Sesame Street Bay of Play to see the show with Elmo! We got her all excited to see him, only to find out right at show time that they were having technical difficulties and had to delay the show. Thankfully the characters still came out to take photos and we were able to catch the show later in the day. 

This girl was THRILLED to meet Elmo. It's funny bc she doesn't really watch Sesame Street anymore but she likes all the Sesame Street books we have and she watches our Elmo's Potty Time dvd often. This is in front of a green screen because you can actually get a really awesome photo of your child where they look like they are "on Sesame Street." We never, ever get these photos places but.....we did spring for this one. I will have to scan and post it one day because it is seriously the cutest photo. She was so, so happy to meet Elmo so we figured that would be a good souvenir for her to keep in her room to remember our trip. Great marketing job, Sea World, you won us over!

She also met Bert and Ernie. A month ago she wouldn't have cared at all, but we've been listening to Bert and Ernie's greatest hits on the iPod so she is a big fan now. 

Most of the rides are for kids over 36" tall and Eva was right under it at 35". I figured a little Ferris wheel was safe enough so we just helped her look taller (those pigtails helped).

Riding the carousel together! I love that she loves riding carousels, even if we did wait a while for this one to get up and going. It may have been because some silly lady walked over to the ride without her shoes because the ride was right next to the swim area and then everybody had to wait while silly lady's wonderful husband ran back to grab her shoes. I may have been the silly lady....oops. 

Such a fun water play area! I liked that they had this because Eva wasn't big enough for the regular Sea World rides that you can get wet on and it definitely got warm in the afternoon. They even have little changing rooms so you don't have to wear your swimsuit the whole day and you aren't stuck changing in a restroom stall. 

One of the highlights of Sea World is getting to see all the animals up close. Don't be scared, but we saw the SHARKS! 

 Duh-dun. Duh-dun, duh-dun. {Jaws theme}

The sea lion show was so funny, lots of slap stick comedy and puns. Who doesn't enjoy a good animal pun? 

The Azul dolphin show was wonderful too. It was like a  cirque du soleil show combined with the neat animal tricks.

And of course the winner for the day was Shamu! We went to both the educational show as well as their big One Ocean show so we could see all the whales twice. If that's the point of Sea World, you might as well see every minute of Shamu you can! Eva really liked it but made sure to tell us days in advance that she DID NOT want Shamu to splash her so we sat further back.

Warn out from a long day. We stayed the whole day from 10AM-5PM. When we first started planning our trip I couldn't have imagined staying the whole day but it went great. Also one day at Sea World was really plenty for us to see and do everything. I guess if you do the Aquatica water park or ride the bigger rides you might want to do 2 days at Sea World, but we were good with one. Eva was so tired she was passed out in her cars eat before we left the parking lot. 

Such a sweet family memory! Glad we took her at this age when she can be so excited. Seeing her joy gives us so much joy. Happy day!