Sea World

Didn't you guys just go to the San Diego Zoo? Yes, but since we were recently offered free tickets that expired in January 2009, we decided to do a quick day trip. It took about an hour and a half to get there. The traffic was not bad since we went the day after Christmas. We arrived before the 9 a.m. opening time.

The Christmas decorations were still up.
As soon as the chains came down, we headed for the Sesame Street play area. There were three rides that k could go on with D. (According to the signs, I wasn't supposed to go on them since I'm pregnant).

This was taken before the ride attendant told D that k should ride on the inside.


k didn't have much of a reaction to the first two rides. I think she was still tired from the car ride. She did smile, however, on this last one. It was nice not to have to wait in any lines. We were done with these three rides in about twenty minutes!


Afterward, we went to Penguin Encounter and Shark Encounter.

We also went to the new Elmo 4-D movie. k wasn't scared, but she didn't want to wear her 3-D glasses.

Our first show of the day was Shamu's "Believe". D got really excited about this one...he's still doing the Shamu "chant" at home!


For lunch we ate at the Calypso barbecue. We shared a sampler plate and a pint of milk between the three of us. It came with 2 ribs, 2 pieces of brisket, a sizeable piece of chicken, corn on the cob, biscuit, and fries. The food was surprisingly good, and not too bad at around $15, since we all ended up full.

After lunch we watched the Pets Rule! show ("Who let the dogs out?"), and the dolphin show. We also walked around a couple more aquarium exhibits. By this time, k was asleep in her stroller. On our way out we stopped at the ice cream place and ordered what was supposed to be two scoops in a waffle cone. We chose chocolate chip and chocolate, but it turned out to be more like two gigantic scoops of each kind! Again, not too bad for $4.


We left around 2:30 and felt like we had seen everything we wanted to see. The park is much easier to navigate than the zoo (smaller, stroller-friendly, relatively flat). All in all, a nice family outing, but I wouldn't have wanted to pay full price!