The Beginnings of One Awesome Trip

Okay so it's been awhile since we've been back and this is the first time I've had the chance to sit down and share the trip with all of you! Now I have seen other takes on this vacation (namely my brother and sister in law's amazing blog)... so once you've seen my boring version of this trip, I invite you to jump over to Todd and Nicole's blog, which you can connect to on the side of mine and take a gander at all of their cute pictures. In the meantime, I thought I'd do this travelogue style and put pictures in as they happened. We left Mom and Dad's house Sunday July 12 and headed down to Todd and Nicoles. We had a total of 11 people traveling, so it required that we caravan with 3 cars. We met Todd and Nicole and ate breakfast in their parking lot, then prayed together and loaded up. Todd, Nicole, Andrew, and Rory in their brand new van; Dad, Carolee, Malerie, Kaity, and Colin in Dad's car; and Mom and I in mine. We started out and made it to St. George in time for a picnic lunch and a gas fill up. We found a park near the temple and ate yummy chicken salad sandwiches and let the kids play on the insanely hot playground, where the highlight was this weird clearish bug on the curb of the playground. After further investigation I determined that it was a dead and sun bleached bee. After that disappointing discovery, we continued on and made it all the way to Las Vegas before getting stuck in road construction that lasted until the California border. After a stop for gas and food at In N Out Burger in Barstow, we left Todd and Nicole to get their kids ready for bed, and headed out because the hotel reservation was in my name and we decided to get a headstart so we could be checked in by the time they got there with the sleeping kids. Mapquest directions in hand I started out and drove fairly successfully for what seemed like years. We're not sure what happened here, but somewhere we made a wrong turn or something and ended up lost in California's freeway system. With only our mapquest map and a map of Western and Central states (California to Arkansas), it was hopeless! I finally called Todd and Nicole and said "Where are you guys?" They said "Five miles from the hotel." I said, " Good. Where am I?" I tried to explain where I was and at the same time ended up in the wrong lane of a junction and found myself on a freeway that was not part of my instructions. Nicole consulted their much more reliable map of California and found my way for me. Forty five minutes later (and the hotel allowing Todd to check into his room with sleeping kids) we pulled into the hotel, travel weary and upset with the entire California Departments of Travel and Tourism. After unloading the cars, Mom, Nicole, and I headed off into the depths of El Cajon in search of a grocery store. After a few wrong turns, (I'm not directionally challenged normally) we finally found a grocery store and went in to buy groceries for the week. Across the street from the store was a Walgreens, where we went to buy more detailed maps of San Diego specifically and California as a whole. Needless to say, I only made one mistake driving the rest of the week! We all exhaustedly fell into bed that night and Nicole and I talked each other to sleep! Monday morning we woke up excited for Sea World. I went to Sea World when I was nine. It's changed a lot! They have a deal right now, where adults pay kids prices and you get a free day, so we were excited to see it all! We started by mapping out the shows we wanted to see, and then proceeded into the park. We stopped to watch some dolphins with trainers. Nicole wanted pictures of Andrew seeing all of the animals so this first one is Andrew watching the Sea World trainers with the dolphins. We then walked over to the otter display and this one really interested Colin. He was really excited to see the playful otters! They were so playful, that I couldn't get a very good picture of them, but I did like this one of Colin's face!
We went to see the Bat Rays and eels and touched them. It was a pretty cool experience to touch these giant sting rays, but I have no pictures because my hands and arms were busy getting into the water, however I think there are a few pictures on Todd and Nicole's blog.

We went on the Shipwreck Rapids ride three times during a Shamu show so there was no line and got sufficiently drenched. It's a lot like the Rattlesnake Rapids ride at Lagoon, only wetter! Again I have no pictures because my camera was safely tucked in the stroller where it wouldn't get wet. After that we went on the Skyride over Mission Bay and since I have a slight fear of heights (okay a little more than slight) I only took one picture because I felt it necessary to hold on!
We spent some time at the tide pool touching star fish and
sea cucumbers that reminded me of a super slimy pickle and

sea urchins. They were weirdly pokey and I only touched it once because it kind of freaked me out! (Not a great picture... too much glare off the water, but it was HUGE!)The kids really liked the tide pool and thought it was pretty neat to pick up starfish.
At this point it was time for the Shamu Believe show and we were sitting in the soak zone, so all of my pictures were taken with a water proof camera that is yet to be developed but there are some pretty good pictures on Todd and Nicole's blog. They were up higher, out of the soak zone with Mom.

After a stop for lunch and some time in the Shark Encounter where Mom got some great pictures of the big teeth and Colin and Andrews frightened looks (ask Andrew what a shark says and he'll put his hands in a point on his head and hum the first two notes of the Jaws theme!) we took in the dolphin show which was pretty comical. They have a family that helps out, and they have one of the trainers pretend to be part of the family. In our show it was the Mom. It was funny to see her fall into the water and be saved by the dolphin. I thought she was just some random woman, but Todd and Nicole had seen the show before and knew the trick. Pretty funny! Rory didn't really get too into much of what was going on, but she made some pretty cute faces at the camera!

This picture is an attempt to get the whole family down the line... Mom, some kids, Carolee, Dad holding Andrew, Nicole and then Todd and Rory up close.
In addition to dolphins, this show also featured pilot whales. I decided they are kind of funny looking.

We spent some time exploring small aquariums and then decided to go see the Sesame Street 4-D show. I took this picture while waiting in line.

After the show we were wandering over to the Sesame Street Bay of Play (a play area mostly for kids) when we heard many barking sounds, and so we detoured to the sea lion display where it was feeding time. Mom bought some fish and we all took turns feeding them. It was one of my favorite parts of the day. They were so photogenic and it was funny to see them climbing the walls trying to get the fish we were dropping. Say Cheese!
This is my hand, holding out the fish attempting to get the picture while keeping the fish away from the flock of birds that also thought it was feeding time. I got the picture and then dropped the fish and I was rewarded by a photo opportunity...
and then another...



and a few more.After playing in the Sesame Street Bay of Play for a bit, we headed out to the car for dinner, and Kaity got sick. We'd already paid for the Sky Tower, which is a huge round thing that goes up really high and then rotates so you can see a lot of San Diego and the surrounding area, so we decided to do that before heading back to the hotel. Todd and Nicole and Kaity stayed off while we went up. The best part was that it was right around sunset. It was a gorgeous view.
Shamu StadiumThe Dolphin Stadium and Mission Bay
We headed back to the hotel and swam a bit and headed off to bed. Ask Andrew where we're going tomorrow and he'll gleefully tell you "Beach!" I'll get that on here soon, I promise!!