Shamu jumps and sprays trainer!
Shamu break dancing
Polar bear swim
Denali watching beluga whales... awwww!
Dolfin hello!
Shamu slammed backside
Shamu slammed frontside
Shamu slamming the crowd.
Labor weekend was an exciting one for us! Why? We did a grand tour of our southern California friends and enjoyed a long weekend with family, all in 6 consecutive days! What an experience! It all started with 2 and 1/2 days with Preston and Heather Seyle and their two girls Sierra and Marlee. We stopped there first to have some mellow hanging-out time, and be close to Dr. Michelle and Darla. Thank the Lord that they have AC because as soon as we arrive and heat wave spread across Riverside bringing temperatures into the 110's. Ouch! We (the girls) stayed inside playing and puttering around and they (the boys) worked out the finishing touches on the Passat we would be borrowing the rest of the weekend. Both of us were satisfied by Saturday morning!
On Thursday afternoon we took a little journey over to Upland to visit with Michelle. It was a blast! We enjoyed a lovely taco salad for late lunch and then took a walking tour of her school, Western School of Ostepathic Medicine. It was so exciting the see the OMM (don't ask!) pracitical classroom, lecture hall, campus features and surrounding scenery. Becoming a doctor is a challenge I can barely comprehend, but she's doing it! We're hoping her clinical rotations will send her up our way sometime soon!
After an evening of visiting, checking out the mall, enjoying a yummy Thai dinner and more talking, I decided to stay the night and Jack drove back to Preston's. He had a few more things to complete on the car and then we would be set for phase two: San Diego with the Duffys.
The next day Michelle and I took our time getting up, headed out for some errands around Clarimont and enjoyed a yummy Mediterranean lunch. It all worked out for Jack and Preston and around lunch time they came rolling in to pick me up at Michelle's. On the way home we simply couldn't pass by In-and-Out Burger (for the TRUE California experience) so we stopped and ordered our veggie burgers (toasted cheese) fries, and a shake.
Finally we arrive home, started packing up and hung out for the evening, which included a nice mexican dinner and games into the evening!
Saturday morning we embarked, for the first time in our lives, on the Sea World experience. It started with an early morning 2-hour drive from Riverside, a short wait in line, and ended 11 hours later after our third round of the dolfin show. It was amazing and certainly too much to take in in one day! That's why we went back on Monday...
To name a few things we were able to enjoy: petting/feeding dolfins, seeing Shamu shows (3 in two days), seeing dolfin shows (3 in one day), seeing the Cirque de la Mer show, petting bat rays, watching penguins in their arctic environment, getting "Shamu slammed" (see the picture), watching beluga whales and a polar bear swim around, walking through the shark tunnel, and watching sea lions and a walrus perform! We thorough enjoyed it and really tried to get our money's worth. It was also great fun seeing it with Ryan & Vicki and little Denali!
To make it a truly Californian experience, we just had to see the beach one day. So Sunday morning we headed to the shore, set up a shade post with chairs and plenty of fluids to drink and lounged, swam, boogie boarded and sweated almost all day. It was awesome and some of the locals even said the waves were the best they had seen in a long time!
After two days of Sea World, a day at the beach and 2 1/2 days with other friends in Riverside, we were ready to come back to the hum-drum of normal life. We said goodbye to friends and family and head back home on our 2nd wedding anniversary, September 4th. It felt good to be home and what a great anniversary trip it was!
No comments:
Post a Comment