Whales, Penguins, and Rain

Mark can officially say that he has been to Florida now, one of only a few states he hadn't visited before. Everything in our hotel feels damp, including the carpet and the beds, and these little "love bugs" are everywhere. Apparently they are annoying for only a few weeks every year, which must be now. So, it only made sense to make our first destination SeaWorld. This was a great choice.

We got a stroller, but she wasn't too fond of it, so we used it a lot for storage during the day. The highlights were seeing the penguins during their daylight hours, the Shamu show, playing under the misters, the pearl diver, and the manatees. We weren't sure how Grace would react to being wet, so we sat right behind the splash zone in the show. Big mistake. She wanted to go down and stand in the front so the water would "get me all wet," and was very disappointed she missed out. We kept diverting her attention from the slides and sandbox all day while we rode the rides and saw the exhibits, promising that we would go back at the end of the day.

Grace has no fear of getting separated from us. In fact, once she wandered away, turned looked around and didn't see us because of the sun. She did turn around and looked to see where we were, but she didn't seem too concerned. We, on the other hand, were fighting her much of the day to either hold our hands, walk between us, or ride in the stroller. She found out that she can "sedni" by the wall in the manta ray exhibit, on the curb, and even right outside the restroom. By the way, I was surprised to note that the bathrooms are all different, well, at least the 9, or was it 10, that we visited during the day. I should have listed bathrooms as one of the highlights since we stopped at every one that we passed...

When the dark clouds started rolling in, most people scurried toward the gate to go home, but we had a promise to keep--the sand and slides. Besides, the park was supposed to be open for another hour. When we got to the kids area at the back of the park, the slides were roped off but Grace didn't care. That white sand kept her busy until all of the trash cans around us had been emptied and the sinister clouds were right overhead. Then we headed toward the gate, feeling proud that we had gotten our money's worth. We just hadn't thought through the fact that to get to the gate, we had to walk across the boardwalk that cuts through the lake. As the winds picked up and the rain pelted us I picked up Grace and splashed along. (Does that count as my aerobic exercise for the day?). We felt so much better when we met up with two other drenched families who must have had the same thought. When you pay $80 per person to get into an attraction, you want to squeeze out every penny...