 After staying up late and closing down SeaWorld the night
before (and getting lost on the way home to boot!) we decided to sleep
in this morning. We still woke up fairly early and after enjoying
another great breakfast there at the hotel, we arrived at Sea World
around 9:30 am and headed on into the park. It wasn’t too busy
yet, so we still got a pretty good parking spot.
Today we had specific things we wanted to do and Wild Artic was high on
the list. When we had passed by there the day before the line was
WAY too long to wait in, so we decided to come back. Today, there
was no line at all and we figured out why – DON’T go there right after
Shamu gets out! We rode the ‘simulator entrance’ to the
attraction building (think ‘Star Tours’) and really enjoyed it.  Then inside we
found a nicely themed building with several Artic animals including a
Polar Bear and some white whales (that reminded me of dolphins).
It was great because you could watch them both from above AND Below the
water! We stayed here for quite some time and enjoyed
watching them. Again – it was quite dim in there, so pictures did
not come out well at all.
 You exit through a
store area, and we shopped in here for quite some time. Found
several items we wanted, and packed them away in the backpack.
(Some great Christmas ornaments can be found here).
Next up was the underwater viewing area for the killer whales.
Brinn really wanted to see them this way so we headed over
there. We stayed quite some time, but the whale was not all
that cooperative today. He swam close once or so, but not close
enough for Brinn’s liking! ;-)  It was a VERY hot
one today, so next we headed to the kids area called Shamu's Happy
Harbor. There we found lots of fun things for the girls to do
(both dry and wet). Kristen and I just sat, relaxed, and thought
about how good it would feel to run through those water areas!
They did have some ‘misting palmtrees’ and we enjoyed those!
 We stayed here quite
a while, and then it was time for lunch. We worked our way back
across the park since after lunch Madison REALLY wanted to ride Journey
to Atlantis. We enjoyed a great lunch at Mango Joes (again with
Kristen and I using the Pepsi meal tickets, and paying for the kids
meals only!). Then I was off with Madison to get in the LONG line
for Atlantis. Now I don’t like waiting in lines, and decided I
absolutely would NOT wait longer than an hour. And the wait time
was listed as ONE HOUR. Drat! ;-) So, we hopped
into the hot, hot HOT line! It wrapped inside some themed
buildings with some mist fans that made it bearable at least!  The line seemed to move quickly, and after only about
45 minutes we were ready to load into the ride. I knew very
little about this ride, but soon realized it was part flume – part
rollercoaster! Fun! They take you on the water drop pretty
quickly, but then you climb back to the top for the roller coaster
portion of the ride. We both loved it, and didn’t even get too
soaked! :-) Again – there was a shop at the end of the
ride, so we met up with Brinn and Kristen there. After a
potty break we headed back out into the park.
Brinn was lobbying for another trip to Shamu Stadium – her absolute
favorite attraction here. I was fighting it a bit since we had
already seen the show twice the day before.  Kristen talked me into it though,
but we kept the decision secret from the girls. They had resigned
themselves to the fact that we were not going there today. (Bad
Daddy, Bad!)
We targeted a show a ways off, and headed to see a special Clyde and
Seamore show. It was a parody of all the other SeaWorld shows and
parts of it quite funny, but still we decided to leave before it was
over and beat the crowd. We headed for Shamu Stadium, telling the
girls we were late for another show instead. Still they caught on
pretty quickly, and were very excited to get another chance to see the
killer whales. We arrived about 30 minutes prior to showtime, so
we got to enjoy another round of SeaWorld Trivia on the big
screen.  And WHO should find themselves displayed for the entire
crowd to see? ME! And yes, it’s a bit disconcerting to look
up and see yourself on a screen that BIG in front of everyone! At
least I got the answer right! :-) Whew!
Well, THAT was fun, and soon it was again show time. Even seeing
as this was our third time seeing the show, it was AGAIN quite
different! They did some wonderful behaviors, and I was as
amazed with the trainers as the whales! Wow! I even got
some decent pictures today! :-) At the end, instead of the
BIG whale, today they had three whales splashing the audience!
The waves weren’t as big as the previous day, but were still pretty
impressive! And once again we lived charmed lives and stayed
perfectly dry (not that the girls were pleased with that!) We
were all glad that we came back again!!
 After that we shopped our way back to the front of the
park and finished off with some great Ice Cream at Polar Palor. I
was still feeling lousy overall and we were all hot and tired. It
was time to head back to the hotel. After some more pool time for
the girls and a nap for dad, it was time to pack up and get ready to
fly home the next day. Packing went very quickly and we had the
leftovers from the previous day for dinner with some popcorn for
‘dessert’ while watching some TV. We’d eaten plenty of GREAT
meals this trip, so I didn’t even mind the simple, in-room dinner!
Tomorrow we head on home and have to head from the airport by about
10am. Time for a good nights sleep!
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