Sea World

Today I turn 29 (cough*32*cough) and we are celebrating with our first visit to Sea World.  We didn't tell the girls where we were going, so when they saw the signs and Eliza read them to Audrey, they were so excited!  

When we walked in the gate, O.P. Otter was waiting to take pictures with the kids.

We watched the dolphins with the trainers for a bit, and the girls got to pet one of them.  It was so crowded around the wall that I couldn't even see it, let alone take a picture.  We will go during the week sometime and try to get pictures then.

The bat rays were less crowded and super fun to touch.  Eliza was ecstatic!  Audrey was more nervous and kept pulling her hand back at the last minute.

Daddy, Eliza and I all got to touch them though.

Then we headed over to Sesame Street's Bay of Play so that the girls could ride some rides.  We started with Oscar's Rockin' Eel.

 

Then we all rode together on Abby's Spinning Sea Stars.  The girls loved it!

We walked over to Shamu Stadium next for the One Ocean show.

There were 3 large whales and 1 small one.  It was a great show, and we were far back from the splash zone, where everyone was getting totally drenched.

We had packed lunch and left it in a locker just outside of the park, so we went to eat after the show.

When we came back in, we got a picture with Pete Penguin.  Then on to find the touch pools...

Audrey was not scared about the sea stars.  We spent quite a while there, checking out the different kinds of sea stars, touching, and even holding some of them.

They were so pretty!

One even had 6 legs.

Happy girls!

We walked through one of the large aquariums with lots of fish, anemones, and beautiful coral.

The Shark Encounter exhibit was really cool.

Then Eliza was ready for her first "big kid" ride.  I still have to ride with her, but she is just tall enough for this one (45inches tall).

Yep, it went up in the air, and around and around!  She was laughing and screaming with joy the whole time.

Doesn't she look more grown up now?  She's all ready to ride some of the other big rides when we come back again.

I loved seeing all the sea turtles at Turtle Reef!  There were some really huge ones.  Eliza was happy to see them, but again Audrey was a bit nervous about them.  She stayed back and didn't want her picture taken with them.

Daddy helped them play some of the interactive video games there that showed how sea turtles live in the wild.   What they eat, the dangers of litter/trash in the ocean, and more. 

The girls favorite part of the day was the Blue Horizons show.  It was like a fairy tale!  There were dolphins, macaws and other birds, and pilot whales...

as well as acrobats and divers!

one of the pilot whales

Daddy and Eliza on Elmo's Flying Fish.  I rode with Audrey.

Then we got to meet Grover and Elmo for some pictures.

The girls had fun with some of the fun mirrors back in the Bay of Play.

We saw some penguins, and other animals, and got some smashed penny souvenirs.  Then we were ready to go.  We went to dinner at our favorite restaurant Ponce's and tucked the girls in as soon as we got home.  Couldn't have asked for a nicer birthday with my family!