Day Four August 21, 2007 – Sea World Adventure Park

Our plan yesterday was to the MGM. But we double checked the park schedules this morning and changed our mind to spend a day in the Sea World, simply because the next two days MGM and Magic Kingdom will open till late in the evening. The two girls were curious to see every event, check out every exhibit, get on every ride that they were allowed too, and of course go wild on every playground. We sure do need more time in each park.

Shamu was right at the entrance to let the kids taking pictures with him. The girls did not know Shamu before and called him “the walking big whale”. Kathy got a big kiss from Shamu on her head. The picture came out like Shamu was biting on the little girl’s head.

Stingray Lagoon was our first stop. The girls spent me 8 bucks for only two tiny boxes of the frozen fish for the stingrays, and gave out all the fish in one minute. That’s quite some expensive breakfast. The girls enjoyed touching the stingrays so much that Steve had to carry the struggling Kathy out of that place.

Dolphin Cove is right next to the Stingray, and we can spend money to feed them! Talking about spending money, the girls got excited. Gave out 10 bucks and got 10 fish in two tiny boxes. Next time I would bring some fish from super market. I’ll treat all of those cute dolphins breakfast. Yeah right, even more expensive. Just kidding. Both girls were upset after the fish were gone. One of Sarah’s fish was taken by a bird. Kathy’s arm was not long enough to pat the dolphin. Neither one of them wanted to leave. Guess what? As parents, it was our responsibility to drag them out of that place, and move on in the life. LOL.

We cared less about the Alligators. But definitely curious to see what Manatees were. The girls were not excited about seeing Manatees. They both walked out of the underwater view and headed to the Whale and Dolphin show next door without Steve and I hollering them. The Whale and Dolphin Show was telling a story about a little girl’s dream of swimming with the big ocean creatures came true. It was very well performed. We were lucky to get the center seats close enough to see every dolphin clearly, but far enough not to get wet. Interesting enough was that there was a Japanese TV station shouting right behind us.

At this point, all of us were ready for a nap.

Our afternoon at the park started again a little after 4 PM. It was steamy hot then. We decided to stay in the Wild Arctic for a while before heading to the playground at Shamu’s Happy Harbor. The line was not long at all. It only took us couple minutes to get inside. The introduction film was not attractive to the girls but at least gave them an idea what they were about to see. The bear was sleeping; dolphins were busy swimming; and the sea loins (or were those sea loins?) could care less about our visitors. Sarah was busy hopping up and down on those fake rocks. Kathy was not happy that she was not allowed to climb all the way up to the cave, so she started counting dolphins to kill time. The bad thing is that the exit of the Wild Arctic was in a gift shop. The girls running around picking up stuffs they liked and acted like step children when I said “No, you can not have it.” Again, we showed them who was in charge.

Net Climb was something new to Kathy. After she spent the first five minutes running up the stairs and sliding down the slides, this little girl discovered the cool Net Climb. The first time she climbed on the nets and moved for several feet only. After couple tries, she was experienced and walked quite a long way on the robes. She got half way to the other end before decided to head back. I seriously did not see anyone like her age on the Net Climb but kids at Sarah’s age. I have to give her credit on daring to try. After the Shamu show we came back to take the Swishy Fishies, which was the only ride Kathy was tall enough to get on at the Shamu’s Happy Harbor. I loved to see her exciting face. The day before she was turned down couple times by the height restrictions at Dino Land. When I took her to a gift shop to wait for Sarah and Steve riding a roller coaster, Kathy asked me, “Where are Sarah and Daddy?” I said that they went on a ride. Kathy looked at me with the saddest eyes and face, “I can not go?” Right at that moment, I decided not to come back before she reaches 48 inches. Lucky her 36 inches is not too far away from the target height. Anyway, I took her to the Swishy Fishies again just to see her happy face.

Oh, almost forgot to mention. When I saw the famous sand play ground that Dian Dian had good time couple years ago, I invited Kathy to play there. The little girl turned me down and ran up the stairs to the Net Climb.

Sharks Encounter was the other place that the girls like very much. Sharks and fishes swimming around was quite an exciting experience to them. The only disappointing part was the shark feeding place closed. I bet that if they let the kids pat the sharks; my girls will definitely touch those dangerous creatures without a second thought.

We dined at the Spice Mill Café with water view. The fish sandwich was really good. The girls discovered and immediately fell into with this plastic Shamu shaped cookie containers and forced me to buy food for the containers, otherwise, they’d make me miserable. The result was that I paid almost 10 bucks to get these two cheap Shamu shaped containers and ate couple cookies to generate extra fat on my body. I will time out them whenever they are not going to use those cheap containers back at home.