Ok
So after battling a 3 day migraine, I am finally able to stare at my computer long enough to discern what pictures are what. Gah, I loathe not feeling well. Its been years since Ive had a migraine that has lasted this long. I can usually control it once I feel the onset, but not this time. It hit me like a ton of bricks. At least thats what it felt like the next day when I could barely see while driving to my chiropractor. (By the way, when you have sensitivity to light and sound, the best option is not to go out in the bright sunlight and drive through rush hour traffic to get to a chiropractor, who then proceeds to use what feels like a jack hammer to relieve the tension in your neck!...just a word of advice).
Anyway, so on with the show.
We last left our fair maiden wondering if she would ever be reunited with her Knight in Shining Armor.
As luck would have it, he came bounding around the mountain on his trusty steed only to sweep our dazzling princess off her feet and carry her off into the sunset, only to live happily ever after.
ok, fine
he walked around the entrance from Manta and caught me taking pictures of the ride.
We take out our trusty map and try to figure out what to do next.
Shipwreck Rapids is just around the corner from Manta, so we saunter that way to check it out.
Seems like this is the only picture we took of it.
Now right away, the thought was, this ride was going to be just like Kali River Rapids in AK. It didnt seem to have any major drops or rapids from what we could see, of course we were wrong
really wrong.
The ride turned out to be sort of a mix between Kali and Universals Blutos Barge. At the end of the ride, we were soaked. You could literally ring out our clothes and be left with a puddle under our feet. I was tempted to pay the $5 for the walk in dryer, but decided against it. This is after all the reason you go on a water ride
to get wet right?
Of course now, my eye is really irritating me, and getting hit in the face with water from the ride hasnt helped at all. Im trying really hard not to rub it or mess with it, but its begging to be messed with. So naturally I do just that, only to make the problem worse. I feel like I have something in my eye. Mike takes a look to see if he can see anything, but he sees nothing either. He tells me whatever it is, is probably gone by now, but Ive rubbed it and messed with it so much Ive probably scratched my eye in the process and thats what Im feeling.
I put my sunglasses back on to hide the now red hideous eye.
Right across the way from the ride is a cafe.
We walk towards the entrance to see what they have to offer. We must make the most of our ADDP today. Nothing appeals to us at the moment, of course it wasnt too long ago that we had breakfast, so we decide to just check out the area we are in and see what else we can find.
As we make our way through the park, we come across these guys
This one in particular was doing everything in its power to get onto the sand, but just couldnt quite shimmy far enough. Eventually all his hard work getting to where he was, got washed away as he slowly slide back into the water.
Cant you almost hear him saying, HELP!
Poor dear. We said goodbye to our new friends and headed to the Bayside Skyride.
I dont know what expression I was trying to convey here
More than likely, it was the "Im freezing, and Im going up in this gondola with no seatbelt or harness, what am I thinking," look
dont know if it came across that way though.
Of course T-Man looks naturally at ease
This ride takes you on an aerial tour, just on the outskirts of the park. It was a nice ride, but since we were soaking wet from the previous ride, I was freezing and my teeth were chattering just a bit. Plus being that high up and nothing to really secure me I was a little spooked. Its times like this that my fear of heights comes into play, unfortunately it doesnt happen until Im up in the ride and looking down and realize, hmm
maybe I shouldnt have done this.
Anyway, here are a few shots from the air.
My view of the ride, from the ride
A view of the city from our vantage point
A couple of guys paddle surfing.
More of the city and the boats around the water.
I loved this shot
And of course T-Man, taking pics, completely at ease with the fact that we are high up in the air. If you notice, my hand has not moved from the middle bar, you can just make out my ring off to the right of the picture. Im holding on for dear life.
After getting back on solid ground, we figure now would be a good time to get something to drink. We can use our ADDP for that too
So making our way to a place that accepts the ADDP, we come across these guys
If I remember correctly, this was a fresh water tank viewing area. It was pretty interesting to watch them swim around.
Just keep swimming
I get the heebeejeebies every time I see these guys. They remind me of the movie Tremors back in the day.
Once we got our drinks we began our quest to get to the other side of the park to ride Journey to Atlantis
once again we were side tracked (Squirrel!). As we walked by, we noticed that the Clyde and Seamore show was going to start shortly. They just dropped the rope to let people in and we decided what the heck. We loved the show the last time we saw it. This time we figured we could enjoy the show since we had so many photos from last time.
Once again we sat in the splash zone area. It was hot, so the soda we got hit the spot, even though the ice was already starting to melt. Technically a beer would have gone down better, but it probably would have gotten hot before I could drink it all and a hot beer is not good. So Ill stick with my watered down sprite for now.
As people started filing in for the show, the pre-pre show began. A mime came out from backstage and came down to the walk way in front of the stage. As people walked past him, he would make faces at them, make fun of the way they walked, or pretend to be an usher and usher them to a seat in the audience, only to make them get up again, and move a couple times before they got tired of him and he would stick his tongue out at them and go on to the next victim.
It was quite entertaining to watch him. He did a great job and made everyone laugh. I tend to be thankful at times like these that we get in just as the rope drops so we can sit down and enjoy this part of the show without being part of it.
As the last of the stragglers made their way to a seat, the pre-show began.
This is Biff
He is part of the stage crew, coming to make sure the stage is spit spot for the show.
Biff seems to realize that he is in front of an audience and decides to ham it up a little. As he cleans the stage, he narrowly misses falling into the water that separates the main stage area from the audience. Everyone claps hoping he will fall in. He starts going back and forth, pointing to the stage, then to the water, to see the reaction from the audience. Of course, anytime he points to the water, the crowd erupts in applause, and every time he points to the stage, we all boo. Still, he stays dry.
Taking a look at the collection of CDs, he inserts one into the player and starts to dance, sort of acting out the sequence of whatever the song is. Most of the songs are from well known movies
Youre the one that I want from Grease, he dons a half man, half woman costume and tries to be both Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta from the movie. Maniac from Flashdance, where he does the infamous water scene. He holds an umbrella for the Singing in the Rain number.
and of course he does the famous Pee-Wee Herman move via the song Tequila.
Unfortunately, this is all the pictures we have of this show. For 2 reasons. One, being that we wanted to actually enjoy the show this time, since we got so many photos from the last time we were here. The second reason
Seamore didnt want to play.
The idea behind the show, is that Clyde and Seamore, the Sealions, and an otter, whom I forget the name of at the moment, are to interact with the main hosts, and act out scenes from famous tv shows, i.e., Dancing with the Stars, CSI, etc. With different hand signals, the sealions will assist in acting out the scene and adding humor, usually making the human host look bad or like an idiot.
The show really is quite hilarious, however, this time around, Clyde was ready and willing to show off his acting skills, while Seamore was willing and ready...to swim.
At one point, one of the scenes, they are acting out something along the lines of The Amazing Race or Survivor I cant remember which, and Clyde is supposed to get into the water and balance a ball on his nose all the way down, and just towards the end, bounce the ball over a bar and catch it on the other side. Then Seamore is supposed to do the same, only do it with a spin, either going around the bar, or going completely under the bar with the ball, or sort of lazily going up and over the bar himself
The minute both of them came out on stage, Seamore hit the water, and started swimming back and forth, and instead of reacting to the commands, he ignored them until he saw them giving Clyde a snack for doing what he was supposed to. Then he would yell at them until he got a fish too. But he refused to participate, and of course Clyde got upset with him. Started yelling and getting into a very heated argument it seemed like, until they pulled Clyde off to the side and apologized to the audience. There wasnt anything they could do to get Seamore to cooperate, so they had to cancel the show for the day.
This happened once before, during the big Shamu show a few years before, where Shamu didnt wanna, and no one tells Shamu what to do
Of course the thing is, if Momma doesnt wanna, then the babies wont wanna, so none of them wanted to partipate in the show that night. It was sad, but its understandable. Even animals have days when they just dont feel well or just dont wanna.
So off we went. As we looked at the time, we figured it would probably be a good idea to grab something to snack on before going too far from the eateries they had nearby. We each had a small individual pizza and salad with a soda, all courtesy of our ADDP.
Once we had eaten, we headed towards the sharks area. This area was dark. Very dark. The upper deck held a couple of small pools where the smaller sharks swam around.
Looks like some tropical island, but looks are very deceiving, as there are some dangerous creatures in them there waters.
As we head down below, you are suddenly surrounded by sharks. There is a conveyor belt, ushering you from one side to the other at a menacingly slow pace, while sharks are swimming on every side of you, including above you as they move from one side of the tank to the other.
this is what we see:
Shhhh
Theyre sleeping!
So, do we make it out? Can we just pass right by these man eaters, without them trying to find a way to bust through the glass and take us prisoners? Only one way to find out. Tune in next time for the next installment
And yes, I will do my best to get the next chapter out before the end of time...