If Sea World had been called Souvenir-shop World it would have been a far more accurate description of the place. Every animal had its own shop, sometimes several. We headed first for the penguins, which William says were his favourite. There was a giant seagull in with the penguins, pretending to be one of the guys so he could get a fishy treat.
Next we saw the Shamu show, which involved Shamu and his buddies (I can't tell which Orca is which) swimming around and doing tricks. Adam's favourite show was Shamu's, but I'm partial to the interpecies production "Blue Horizons" we saw at the end of the day. It took place in the dolphin stadium, but it also had this odd kind of whale, as well as birds, and far more human acrobatics than I would have expected. Fish-like mammals all do the same tricks: they jump, they beach themselves on the stage, they splash the audience. The dolphins add a little flipper and fin waving to the mix. I found the addition of human acrobats and divers provided much needed variety.
Another favourite of mine were the sea lions, though we didn't catch their show. Sea World has a brilliant scheme in which they actually charge people to feed their sea lions for them. $6 a tray of fish, and then they don't have to hire a zookeeper to do it. Genius. These animals can look pretty scary up close: glassy bulging eyes, pointed black teeth, and flaring nostrils. Picture ten of these things, barking loudly and waving their flippers for food. Oh, and some extremely agressive sea gulls and egrets dive-bombing the tray holders. I saw a sea gull the size of a penguin hit a baby in the head. The baby was fine so...hilarious!
As usual we spent a substantial amount of time in the non-sea-creature-related kid's area. And we also caught a pet show, involving cats, dogs, and other domestic animals that don't live in the ocean. William scored an overpriced yet highly amusing bubble gun. And everyone left the park happy.
This was our last day of California fun. I'm hoping to score another swim in the ocean before we trek back across the desert, but we'll see how things go tomorrow.
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