Birthdays and other special occasions are celebrated best, it seems, in San Antonio! We had another amazing weekend at Sea World, even forgoing a nap on Saturday (gasp!), and braving the chilly temps to spend time with our favorite cetaceans and other marine animals. Uncle Greg met us in San Antonio and the girls forewent their normal 3-day warm-up period around relatives, hugged him within the first 30 seconds, and read him their favorite book du jour (One Bear Lost) within the first five minutes. Pretty successful coup for Uncle Greg :)
First stop at Sea World, as always, was feeding the bottlenose dolphins. Abby now has the procedure down pat (hold the fish, pet the dolphin, drop the fish in the dolphin's mouth), but Izzy sort of freaks out when she sees the dolphin's teeth and throws the fish away from her. Despite that, the dolphins are the highlight of her day and she is always loathe to leave the dolphin pool. We got a special treat Saturday morning and got to witness a marriage proposal (accepted) which incorporated the dolphins. The bride-to-be was suitably excited and beside herself :) Izzy and Abby were nonplussed about the proposal, but excited by the dolphins playing on the non-feeding side of the pool, and very thrilled when the trainers facilitating the interaction let them throw some ice to the dolphins.
We were pretty excited that T and D (and their parents!) were able to join us at Sea World. The girls flocked to the characters walking throughout the park, lavishing hugs with abandon. Izzy is still a little more hesitant about them, but is definitely warming up!
As the girls get older, they're getting more and more excited about the rides in the middle of the park. Izzy tried all of the rides, but wouldn't repeat the little roller coaster or "Abby Kadabby's Rockin' Wave," opting instead for repeat rides on the carousel. Abby is a daredevil and had a HUGE smile on her face on all of the more daring rides.
The "special treat" of this trip was getting to see Mr. Jack Hanna and his animal friends! We watched his show during the day, observing a sloth, two BIG pythons, several lemurs, a bear cat, the Von Trapp Children, and a cheetah. (Are you singing "One of These Things is Not Like the Others..."? We'll address that in a minute :) The girls were VERY impressed, but didn't want to volunteer to touch the snakes. Jack Hanna started to get a little nervous about the cheetah when a mom got up to take her unruly child out and began to reiterate that cheetahs are tuned in to MOTION and PLEASE SIT DOWN! Then he had the keepers usher the cheetah backstage. All in all, pretty exciting.
As for the incongruous performance by the Von Trapps, grandchildren of Kurt-the-incorrigible, well, we can't explain it, but Abby and I found it absolutely incredible and awesome. Izzy kept asking her dad when they would stop singing, and Dan was impressed but got a little stuck on the incongruity.
At the end of the day, we attended a special "Dinner with Jack Hanna." It was pretty exciting to get to see the animals up close. Izzy was pretty freaked out when we got close to the sloth, which made her attentiveness to the armadillo all the more interesting. His keeper let him scurry about the grounds, and Izzy ran right after him, and reached out to touch him several times. Dan and I were pretty taken by the majestic bald eagle. And I was MOST taken by the amazing Mr. Jack Hanna himself, who signed pictures for each of us and posed for a picture with us in his jungle hat.
We think that the hotel stay is almost as exciting to the girls as the attractions that we visit. We try to get hotels with pools, and this was no exception, but the water was icy cold, so we didn't stay in for long or make any repeat dips, sadly. The girls got in long enough to show off their swimming skills for their dad, and then we popped back upstairs for a nice long bath.
Dan and the girls managed the luggage while I checked out. The girls are very proud abut being big enough to pull suitcases on their own. While they do require some significant oversight, we're pretty excited that they're becoming truly helpful while traveling!
With birthday money burning a hole in their pockets, Abby and Izzy chose some marine mammal friends to take home. Abby chose a seal, and Izzy a beluga. Izzy was insistent that we re-visit Azul, the beluga and Pacific white-sided dolphin show. We're glad we did... we got a seat up close and really loved every minute! Our orca show wasn't as spectacular as the animals weren't being particularly cooperative. We saw them a few times, but the keepers cut the show short in order to NOT reward bad behavior. We've exercised that discipline technique a few times with our own little mammals, and had taken in a great performance on Saturday, so we weren't too disappointed.
Our last stop was feeding the dolphins one last time. I think Dolphin Cove is unequivocally our favorite destination.
We made one last stop at a DQ on our way home. All in all a GREAT birthday weekend for both Dan and the girls.
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