San Antonio - Day 3

I'm so sorry to keep you guys hanging. Apparently I'm still suffering from jet lag....even though we drove. And it's been two weeks.

Anyway, back to our story. Where were we? Oh yes.

Day 3, the plan was: To spend the entire day at Sea World.

Thank goodness, that day actually went as planned!

Learning from the zoo fiasco, we got up early and left the hotel about 1 1/2 hours before the park opened. It worked great! There were no traffic problems, no parking problems, and they actually opened the gates 30 minutes earlier than scheduled.



While we were standing in line waiting for the gates to open, the lady behind us (who was from S.A.) told us she had heard that even the Visitors Bureau had been taken by surprise by the number of people visiting San Antonio for spring break, and that Wednesday had been a record attendance at the zoo! Well. There ya go.

We were so excited to see the whale shows, and headed to see the belugas first thing. We were a little disappointed to find that both of the whale shows have actually been changed a lot since hubby and I were there last. The beluga/dolphin show is mostly stunt people now, with very little actual animal time. The gymnast/stunt people were amazing, but not really what I was hoping to see, ya know?



On the plus side, there was a baby beluga that was adorable. If you look really closely in the bottom left of this photo, you can see the white mama's back and the gray baby. It was so cute to watch the baby playing with the trainer. He played just like a human baby. She would splash him with water, and he would spit water back at her. Cute!



Probably due to the trainer accident that happened just a couple of weeks before our trip, the trainers did not get in the water at all with the killer whales. No shooting out of the water on the whale's snout. No skiing on the whale's backs. They were still amazing, of course, but it just wasn't the same.



What was really fun was that there was also a baby killer whale! In this first photo you can see her swimming underneath her mama.



And here's another one of mom and baby. See her little head just barely poking out of the water?



One of the things I was most looking forward to doing with the kids - feeding the dolphins - was out. We got to the pool about 30 minutes before feeding time, and the line was already outrageously long. Twice. While we were standing there trying to decide whether or not to wait in the line, a trainer came out and said, "We can't promise that those of you beyond this point will get any fish." Ummm, no thanks. See the dolphins waaaay over there on the other side of the pool? :) Needless to say....you got no fish, you pet no dolphins.



AND....to add to the atmosphere of the day, Jacob spent the entire day (except during the sea lion and walrus show, which he loved) saying, "I want to leave now and go back to the hotel and swim. Are we done now? Can we leave now and go swim? I want to go swim." Seriously. The.Whole.Day.

At least he was happy for these 18 minutes....



We had pre-purchased tickets to participate in the penguin interaction program. It was so cool! First we went into the puffin and then the penguin exhibits with an educator who told us all about the birds, their habitats, reproduction, feeding, etc. After that we got to go behind the scenes, behind the exhibits, and see the penguins up close. We got to talk with the primary penguin care-taker (that's her in the blue sweatshirt, below), visit the inside of their habitat, and pet Maggie the penguin. The kids loved this part! Mom sorta liked it too. :) Penguins are awesome! Loved this....



See how the penguin's head is turned backwards? Um, yes, that would be Maggie the penguin biting Kloe.



Random cool pictures from the day...

Look at all the turtles laying on top of the alligators.


Kloe's favorites. She loves flamingos....




Even with all of the changes and all the unexpected, we truly did have a really fun day. I actually had to squelch tears at the beginning of the beluga whale show. Remember how I always wanted to be a whale trainer when I was growing up? I sat there the whole time looking at those trainers thinking, "They are living their dream. How many people get to do that?"