San Diego, continued....

 Sea world, I am sure, ranked pretty high if not highest on everyone's favorite part of the trip list. The many Sea lions that we saw on the trip, both wild and contained, were very funny. I especially enjoy their peculiar rest stance. I should try it more often. It looks like it builds confidence.

 "Ladies and Gentlemen.... Cirque, De la Mere!" This trapeze, gymnast type drama was very fun. It was really incredible to see the strength of all the performers. One part of the show featured men performing tricks on the long bendy poles near the front of the bleachers. If you look closely, you can see the turquoise pole in the middle of the picture. They did flag pole type tricks.

 Our own little future Cirque De La Mere performer.

 This was one of my favorite parts of Sea World. Me, Mom, Devin, Dantzi and Owen and Capriel,( if you can believe it) went on Atlantis. Owen and Capriel ended up in front for no particular reason, I'm sure.

 The above picture is blurry, but I had to use it. Dantz is still recovering from the wild ride. I sat next to Mom, and during the ride where you pause, and you can't see the track ahead because it's going down so steeply, Both mom and Dantzi, were saying in high pitched voices, " No! I realllly don't want to do this!", " Oh, no!" It was so fun to experience the roller coaster with them.

 Another fun thing we did was Kayaking with a tour guide. We paddled out to a sea cave where our guide quickly whisked us in and out of. We were very very close to wild sea lions on the rocks, and some even were swimming in the water near us.

 Not my greatest picture, but Add and I had a great time trying our hands at Kayaking. Another fun thing we did that day was snorkeling. Sadly, we didn't take any pictures, but I think Derek or Devin has them if you wanted to see. The whole experience was actually quite hilarious.  We did it in two seperate groups. After squeezing into wet suits, my group walked down to the water with our guide. As we walked along the beach, we passed a young boy being treated for a sting ray wound, and being lifted into the back of a truck. We happened to be on the beach that held the record for most sting ray attacks in a day. Fabulous. We shuffled backwards into the water in our flippers so as not to be stung by the rays. Our guide stomped hard through the water ahead of us to fend off the sting rays. Once we got to water deep enough to swim in, the real hilarity ensued. We put the mouth pieces into our mouth, and our goggles on. Everyone was in panic for a while. It was really funny to see everyone at your same level, wet hair, gorilla lips on your mouth piece, flailing around in our flippers, a little panicky, and spitting out that horribly salty water, which some of us sucked up right through our mouthpieces. Near the end of our swim, the remainder of the group that hadn't swam back to shore because of difficulties, ( Grandpa Pete, Addy and I) came so close to the shore that we could see the bottom about two feet from our face. Try swimming in that, and wearing flippers too. Our guide told us not to touch the bottom; there were tons of sting rays. Um, Okay! We'll do our best! We paddled with our finger tips, and spread invisible butter with our arms to keep ourself aloft from certain peril at the slightest contact with the ocean floor. Why did they pick this spot to give tours? It was fun!

 Dantzi and Grandpa, Paddling partners.

 Owen and Derek.

 Lan and I chilling for a second at Sea World

 The tide pools at Sea World

 Shamu..... We sat in the splash zone. We got more than we bargained for. We were absolutely soaked. the youngest kids were crying, and the water was all salty! The flips that the whales were doing were so incredible!