Sea World- Shamu!

       Since we decided not to do a Disney trip this year, my parents wanted to take the kids somewhere special.  Of course we thought of Sea World.  Riley absolutely loves Shamu and it was still a trip out of town.  On Tuesday, we drove down to San Antonio and checked into the hotel.  Since we were short on time and plenty on heat, we decided to head out to Sea World that night to get our passes and catch the night shows.  Even for late in the day we were melting.  But we managed to squeeze in the Shamu Rocks! show and the other whale show.  We really enjoyed it, but were a little disappointed in the night Shamu show.  It didn't have much action and the whales were not that involved. 

The next morning, after a busy breakfast at the hotel we headed out for day 2 of Sea World.  The kids did great.  We caught most of the shows.  This time the Shamu show really did rock!  I am always mesmerized by the amazing things that those gigantic whales can do.  They look so graceful in the water.

Although Alex was more interested in studying the map than the show.  She takes after her mother & brother.

My other favorite show is the water ski show.  I really felt like this show had improved since last year also.  Lots more action and less of the dumb story line. 

After seeing several shows, Riley decided it was time for some action. This year he was tall enough to ride all but one rollar coaster, but one look at them and he decided he wasn't really ready.  So we headed to the "log ride".  Unfortunately the line was really slow, it took us about an hour and 15 minutes to get on the ride.  I can't imagine how long the big rollar coaster lines must have been. 

But he did love it.  Alex got in the posed picture, but her and Nana did not actually ride the ride.  We weren't sure she would like the ride, but we KNEW she would never stand in that long line.  After it was all over, Alex decided that she MUST have a snow cone to top off the day.  In fact I even bought a "chipwich" first for us to share.  That was not good enough.  So Gampa bought a snow cone! :)

Alex may not have gotten into all the shows or done much riding, but she did have fun dancing in the streets.

Finally as we were heading out the door, Riley wanted to pose with the Nascar.  He still says he wants to be a race car driver when he grows up.   Only if he is really successful, because otherwise this mamma thinks its too dangerous.

We had lots of fun at Sea World, but our reservations for that night were in Bandera, TX.  So we packed up and headed out for our hour drive.