Our first trip to Sea World

This was our first visit to Sea World as a family...Mia's first time, period. On the drive down to San Antonio, we talked about what we might see. Mia's VERY into animals, so she was pretty excited. She hugged the shark and Shamu characters...I was a little surprised. For some reason, Mia's right leg/knee/foot/hip or something has been causing her to limp a little. So, we opted to rent a stroller, so she rode around in style...oh, we ended up having to wrap a (fresh, unused) diaper around the stroller handle after someone took off with ours while we were watching the dolphin/beluga whale show that Mia LOVED. She was sooo mesmerized and then would clap and cheer the dolphins on. Too cute. Peeps kept turning around and smiling big at her when she clapped and yelled 'Yay! DOLPHINS!!!!'


Mid November is THE time to go. It was cool and crisp. There really weren't any crowds to speak of. Never any lines at concessions or stores. No one pushing and we got great seats at every show. Daryl said we need to make a yearly Sea World trip...as long as it's in November.

This may seem silly, but I've never had a caricature drawn of me. Daryl has one from when he was little...it's framed and hanging at his parents house. I never got one, and felt like something was missing in my life...ok, I'm exaggerating, but I wanted Mia to have one from when she was little. She was game and posed very well. She ended up sweet, with the requisite big head and a ballerina body...super sweeeet.

Oh, she also really dug the penguin exhibit. Her fave penguins are the Macaroni variety. She has a little plush Macaroni penguin at home, so when she saw them for real, she was totally jazzed. Out through the exhibit was a little gift shop. Mia flipped between wanting the big mama and baby penguin duo, then the HUGE penguin, but when she saw the Macaroni penguin backpack, she was SOLD! I told her to go ask her daddy for $21.99, she did just that, and he just smiled and handed her his wallet. He was such a great sport about it all. I guess he figured if he was buying $5.50 beers, his baby could have an overpriced backpack :)





Oh, Daryl tried his hand at a midway game and tried to knock down...and completely off the stand...a set of three milk jugs. Poor thing came incredibly close, but no cigar. I only proved that I did indeed throw like a girl and hit NOTHING!




Mia LOVED the sea lion/walrus/ sea otter comedy show. She actually followed the plot and said 'the walrus did it...he stole all the fish'. The sea lions were the main characters, otters thrown in for some comedy, and the walrus had about 3 minutes of stage time, but Mia was impressed. That's all she talked about all the way home. The walrus. The BIIIIIIG walrus.



One bad note of the trip was that I broke my camera lens...so only a few shots and no shots of Mia and I at the dolphin pool. We both were thrilled when I was able to pet a few dolphins about 6 times during their swim bys. Daryl pointed out that I didn't actually 'pet' them...just happened to touch them as they were going by. Sour grapes, I say. I pet dolphins :)

At the end of the day, Mia was jumping around and attempting to skip when she saw an older girl doing just that. She didn't limp at all, and no limping today. Whatever it was, she worked it out. Sea World was a success!