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| Shamu trying to leap over the wall to freedom |
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| Steffi & Alex and their smuggled syrup |
We started the day with breakfast at The Mission - a
restaurant in Mission Beach that serves really good food and has a sort-of Oly
vibe. Only at the beach, and there weren’t
homeless people sleeping outside asking for money or beer. Steffi loves the french toast at this place, but
she gets angry that they don’t serve real maple syrup, so today, she packed her
own bottle of organic maple sugar, and smuggled it in. After breakfast, we said goodbye to Alex
because he had to go work like a grown up.
We dropped Steffi off at home, because she too, had to work to do,
and us kids went to Sea World.
We haven’t been to Sea World in years and I was excited to
revisit some of my favorite animal exhibits.
Namely, I wanted to feed the dolphins – which we ended up not doing. I’d like to confess something: every time I
go, there is a part of me that hopes that Shamu will drag one of those trainers
under water and give them the what-for.
Of course I don’t want anyone to die, but a quick reminder that, “Hey,
I’m the boss here, lady,” is always a rad message from a whale. Also, every time I go to Sea World, or any
zoo really, I experience this weird and sudden influx of sorrow for these poor
animals. And then 30 seconds later, I’m
clapping and cheering as Clyde the Seal catches a basketball on his nose. And then I buy an overpriced souvenir for my
kids. An hour later, I’m railing against
Sea World for the 4 gallon swimming pool they cram these beautiful whales into. I’m a wreck by the end of the day. Now I know what it feels like to be manic-depressive.
We watched the Shamu show, the sea lion and otter show
(which was my favorite thing in the park), and visited a few exhibits. Then we decided to go to Blue Horizons
Stadium to see the dolphin/pilot whale show.
Oh my sweet Lord in heaven... I’m
not sure what happened there, but let me try and bring you into the experience:
We sat in the back row of the splash zone – pretending like
we wanted to get splashed, but secretly hoping we’d stay completely dry. The song that introduced the show was reminiscent
of a Disney princess movie and it was all very hokey and dramatic. A lady in a bright pink wet suit underneath
what appeared to be my nightgown from 1978, came out on stage, and a story
began to unfold. Frankly, I have no idea
what the story was, because I was so confused by all the trainers in brightly
colored wet suit-costumes running around the stage flailing their arms and
dancing about, while completely over acting.
There were some dolphins and a couple pilot whales, but I didn’t really
pay attention because I couldn't peel my eyes away from the train wreck on the
stage. It was like a SNL parody of a Broadway
show. The facial expressions, the
movements, the dancing… I sat horrified
while the dolphins leapt and flipped in the water around them. There were guys diving off of platforms, a
person dressed up as a parrot swinging above the pool, and a whole lot of this:
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| Help me. |
We were the first ones out of the show. We ran for our lives, straight to the bat rays
and bought some fish to feed them. A guy
taught us how to hold the fish between our fingers, so the fish stuck straight
up. He told us to put our arms elbow
deep in the water and the bat ray would swim over us and suck the fish up into
their mouths. We spent some time
fondling the rays, and the whole time I was thinking, “You know, these look an
awful lot like the creature that killed Steve Irwin. Is Sea World SURE these are bat rays? I’m not entirely convinced. I think I might get stung and die.” I am an absolute blast to be around at zoos and aquariums.
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| Right before I almost got stung in the heart like Steve Irwin |
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| Chad was almost as brave as I was |
We made our way over to Journey to Atlantis, which is a big
roller coaster/water ride. Chad had
never been on it, but I took Ali when she was in Kindergarten 8 years ago. Apparently, in 8 years, one tends to forget
exactly how wet certain rides can be. Chad and got up to the ride car and the
employee asked us, “do you mind sitting in the front or do you want to go on
the next one?” We didn’t mind getting
wet, we thought, “pssssh, what’s a little water?" Well, the very first plunge soaked us so bad
that I had a puddle of water on my lap that was about the same size as Shamu’s
pool. By the time the ride was over,
there was no part of us that was dry.
The girl running the ride asked us if we wanted to stay on and go again.
Uh,
no thanks. We trudged away, leaving a
nice stream behind us right through the gift shop. There was a big machine you could stand in,
and for $5 it would dry you. But it
probably would’ve set us back 35 bucks each.
So where do we go next? The polar
bear and penguin exhibits. Just some
Discovery Channel-type information for you: polar bears and penguins don’t live
in warm climates. And this would be a
good time to remind you that it was only 7 degrees warmer in San Diego than it
was in Olympia today. I used to try to
imagine what it was like for those who lost their lives in the freezing North Atlantic
the night the Titanic sunk. Well, now I
know. Luckily, we didn’t die; much like
that girl in the movie who was saved by the floating door and then rescued, we
managed to get to our car in the parking lot and turn on the heat. The whole event was so similar to the Titanic, it was
actually spooky. Had I been carrying a
whistle, and had I been able to muster the breath to blow it, security may have
had to give us a ride to our car in their golf cart. But, for the love of God, we had to WALK. Like 600 yards! Oh the humanity.
We stopped by Raglan Public House in Ocean Beach before heading home. It was happy hour and we thought, “well, let’s
just have a tiny snack.” This was our
tiny snack. Oops.
Back at Steffi’s, Alex was just getting home from work, so
after a quick visit (and change of clothes) we drove to the Gaslamp Quarter to
meet some friends at Rock Bottom Brewery.
My old friend Damon, and his wife Kaylin, moved to San Diego just over a
year ago. I haven’t seen Damon in a long
time so we had a great time of catching up and laughing about the old
days. After a couple hours, we parted
ways. Steffi and Alex drove us through
Little Italy on the way home. A street
full of restaurants devoted to pizza and pasta? Yes please. Now I have a reason to return to San Diego. Well, that and Steffi and Alex.
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| Friends (minus Alex the photographer) |
I can’t believe it’s our last night here. 4 days seemed like the perfect little getaway
when I was planning it, and now I feel like we’re just getting warmed up.
Chad and Rachel
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