We had no idea where we were going to stay or what we were going to do, other than go surfing of course! After a little research online on what to do with a year and a half old in San Diego, we settled on taking Ollie to SeaWorld on Friday, and then booked a hotel nearby. We arrived around 11:30pm. After checking into our room Ollie was wide awake (he slept nearly the entire drive over), so we pulled out some snacks and watched a movie before going to sleep.
We were soon through the gates and I really was excited to be there, I haven't been to SeaWorld since I was little and the anticipation of seeing Ollie get excited over all the animals was thrilling!
There is no doubt Matt and I could be more efficient about planning. I am sure there are people that show up and have their whole day mapped out, we probably crossed back and forth across the park way more than we needed to, but luckily everything was pretty close and neither of us were bothered by the fact that we didn't have a plan, we just went where we felt like it- our first stop was to see Shamu!
It really was amazing to see the whales so close, Ollie loved it and I knew we were in for an exciting day! We saw dolphins next, at first Ollie was scared. I think he was startled more than anything because we were right there at the edge of the pool looking down at the dolphin racing under the water when he suddenly jumped up out of the water only about 4-5 feet away from us. After he got over the shock, he had a good time watching them. When we were done with the dolphins Matt and Ollie got measured- Ollie came up short, too small for all but two rides :(
After stopping by to see the otters we hit our first show. It was hot but Ollie did great and actually watched the dolphins and birds and all the people diving and seemed to have a good time. We stopped by to see the sea lions and some flamingos before watching Madagascar. I was happy to get inside out of the sun, and Ollie had fun dancing along with the characters.
Next stop- Shark Encounter! The one place we were most looking forward to and it did not disappoint! The very best part was going through the tunnel. The crowd was thin by that point so we ran back to the front of the tunnel and did it again (your on a moving escalator- except it doesn't escalate it's flat so I don't know what you call it!)
Once outside, I was busy getting a penny stamped with a shark on it (I'm always a sucker for those things) when Ollie wandered into the shop next door and ran out with a shark! He already has a little one from our Kauai trip last year, but he was having so much fun with it that after Matt made him put it back we decided to let him pick one out to take home.
He tested them out first to see which one had the best bite...
Found a winner!
Picked up a leaf off the ground and tried to feed him...
He entertained everyone in the park as he ran around making the shark bite his hand, and wrestling him (even on the ground some times). We took him to the kids section next, thinking there were some rides for him there. Matt picked up a big turkey leg and we took a break eating while Ollie ran around getting wet on the splash pad, making everyone watching laugh. He is quite the entertainer!
When he was all good and wet, and after discovering he really couldn't ride anything- not even the tea cups we found a play area that you had to be under 36" to play in. He didn't seem disappointed.
We hit the circus after that, Ollie was starting to get tired so he mellowed out but Matt and I enjoyed it. I was sad that he was nearly asleep for the star fish. It was one of the few things I could remember well from my visit to SeaWorld when I was little, we didn't get him out of the stroller for it- he was just too tired.
He LOVES turtles though. He has two wooden ones from Hawaii that he plays with all the time at home and "tur tle" was one of the words from his early vocabulary so we did pull him out of the stroller to see these guys laying out in the sun.
Sadly he had fallen asleep by the time we made it to Turtle Reef because it was pretty amazing.
I wasn't all that disappointed that he was still asleep when we went to see the penguins. It was dark and the glass was hard to see through, so really it was highly anticipated but kind of disappointing.
We got a better look at some penguins outside that were getting fed.
We decided to go see Shamu next. It was the highlight of the day. I remember loving it so much that my grandpa bought me a stuffed Shamu when I was little, and it really was amazing this time around. We didn't have the best seats, we were way up at the top (again because we didn't have a plan we kind of found shows last minute.) Even from up top it was exciting. I really don't understand how the heck they train them to do the shows!
We were pretty hungry afterwards, it was 5:30 by that point so we stopped for a bite to eat. Matt and I shared a funnel cake, while Ollie helped himself to some chicken nuggets and fries. His favorite part was eating them out of the Shamu dish, he kept saying "Shamu!" I guess he liked the show too!
We snuck into the "Pets Rock" show after that. Once again we were at the top row off to the side, they actually announced that the place was full right before we entered. It was the last show of the day though and Matt really wanted to see it. It was fun to see the dogs and cats, and even the pigs, but Ollie had a hard time concentrating and had more fun wrestling with his shark again- the people around us were pretty entertained by him too. He likes to have you make the shark "bite" him, and his favorite it his tummy! When the show was over we headed to our last stop of the day- the Arctic world. It was one of our favorites. The best part was seeing the Belugas. Matt and I actually saw Belugas when we were in Alaska last year, but all we could really see was the top of them peaking out of the water, being so close this time was pretty amazing.
Ollie making his growling hands at the Polar Bear.
We got pretty lucky, he went inside right as we were leaving.
I'm not going to lie, these guys were pretty gross to me. The walruses were huge but they were like one huge piece of fat!
I thought the Belugas were exciting up top, but watching them under the water was way more thrilling. They were very playful and even came right up to the glass and bobbed up and down for us.
There was probably more we could have done, but we felt fulfilled and decided it was time to go. Ollie's first trip to a park and we all had a great time. Club Atlantis opened right as we were going by- it's basically a kids dance club. Ollie can't resist dancing when he hears music so he was dancing on top of Matt's shoulder's all the way out of the park. And then he gave Matt some snuggles, his way of thanking him for one amazing day!
We made sure his shark was there to watch him on our drive to our next destination...we had checked out of our hotel but we had no idea where we were going!
Matt wanted to go surfing the next day so we started heading towards San Clemente. Surprisingly nearly all the hotels were sold out but we finally found one and were happy to settle in for the night. Ollie was all tuckered out when we arrived. He couldn't hold in the yawns and was happy to fall asleep snuggling his new friend.
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