Sea World, Part 1

Sunday was going to be our last day in Orlando and we had a full day planned. We began by checking out of the hotel and heading over to Sea World. We were looking forward to a relaxing day watching shows, wandering around the park and hitting the big roller coasters! Jeff and Ashley were meeting with some of her friends from Orlando, so it was just Papa, Mimi and our family. We missed them, but we had a great time!

The park was fairly empty, we it was nice not to be swamped with crowds. As we walked in, we were greeted by Shamu. I think there was only one family in front of us for pictures with him!

We stopped by the Pacific Point Reserve to check out the sea lions. Craig decided to splurge for the day and purchase three areas of food for feeding the animals. It was very fun to watch them catch the fish that we threw their way. One sea lion actually took his fish and threw it up in the air and caught it in his mouth while swimming around one of the rocks about five times before he finally ate it. Each of the kids got the opportunity to feed them.

A little while later, we went to the Shark Encounter to watch the sharks. It was very cool to ride on the moving sidewalk through the large underwater viewing tunnel.

The shark viewing tank was very interesting to watch the small sharks swim around. We had hoped to feed the sharks, but the feeding shop was closed.

The Wild Artic exhibit was fun! It was very cool to see artic animals such as the polar bear, the (huge) walruses and beluga whales.

Checking out the polar bear in the corner

Beluga whales

We also got to visit the Stingray Lagoon. Here, we got to feed the stingrays and they were quite interesting to watch! They actually pop out of the water a bit to try and get the fish. We had to keep reminding Trinity not to tease them - the stingrays would freak her out a bit and she would pull her hand (and the food) back. Everyone had a great time with the hands-on experience.