Wednesday Aug 21
This is the last installment I wrote at the time, and never got around to posting! Funny to read the details now when theyve faded. Anyway, might as well finish up what I can. So the following was written about 15 months ago, while we were still there
We are feeling the end approaching, and starting to panic. We are doing fairly well on our to-do lists, but still have some things to tick off. Today managed a few.
Sausage gravy. Tried to go to a Bob Evans we kept seeing, only to pull into the parking lot and find it's under reno. So, back to our friendly neighbourhood Waffle House, biscuits with sausage gravy for me, pork chops for dh and waffles for the kids. Not as good as Bob Evans, but what do I know? I haven't had sausage gravy for probably 5 years or more.
An hour at home with the dog, and a bit of pool time, then off again. Bubbalou's Bodacious BBQ. On the shirt--dh's at least. We picked the one near Universal, and got there around 1. I ordered pulled pork, and everyone else had regular BBQ sandwiches. I won. Sorry, dh.
THe pulled pork was great, the sliced bbq pork just tasted old. And dd had to lower her head to find a seat, as they also have dead things on the wall. Oy. I shared my pulled pork with the less fortunate. The "mild" sauce actually has that South Carolina vinegar tang I like. And really, really good lemonade. Who knew?
Back in the car, to Seaworld. We got there around 2 and got sent to the outer boondocks to park. It was HOT. This is only the second day we've been in a park in the heat of the day (the other day was Legoland). We were moving pretty slowly, and feeling hard done by by the time we got in. We walked by the sting ray tank, and things instantly got better. So cool. Dh spend $10 for 3 trays of sardines so we could feed them. (Last time they had something that looked like tofu for the rays, which was less gross.) We were so lame, every time a ray came toward us, we squealed and dropped the fish, which really confused the poor rays. But they were good sports, and it was really fun. They'd flap their wings on the way by and "high fin" us.
Next we headed toward the back and found ourselves at Turtle Trek, with a 10 min wait. The wait was painless, as we got to wait inside in AC, with a viewing tank of manatees and turtles. I love manatees. So gentle and graceful looking, despite their hugeness. Ds kept calling them "Chewys of the sea" and giggling. Chewy is our very fat, very lazy guinea pig.
The turtles were great too. There was one big guy with a HUGE crater out of his shell and back, from a run-in with a boat propeller. Like, it could hold about 40% of a basketball. Amazing that he survived, and pretty awe-inspiring. You can see what I mean here
sad to see, but so amazing, what a survivor.
We went into to the 3D theatre, and it was well done, with the 360 degree projection (like an imax dome). It was a little hokey, but cool. I remember noticing at one point that the man standing off to my left had a huge jellyfish on his head.
We were happy to get back to the real critters, though, and spent another lovely time watching the same turtles and manatees from above this time, in the outdoor viewing area.
Then we decided we had time to see the dolphin show, and we found seats left of centre in the front row, in the splash zone. They were great seats. Even though we couldn't see everything, we had a great view of the animals underwater, and they got so close. We got a little wet, but nothing too bad. The birds in that show are wonderful too, and they had us all oohing and ahhing as they flew overhead. There was a single huge bird of prey (I think--definitely not a parrot!) that really surprised all of us. We only saw it once, I'd like to know more about it.
Leaving there we had to hoof it over to Shamu Stadium for Dine with Shamu. I was told to check in at 4:15 and we did, after really rushing across the whole park to get there. (Note, the signage for DwS is spotty to non-existant, and we wasted time and energy getting there.) My original ressie would've assured us a great seat, and I was trying not to mourn that, thinking we'd have bad seats with our last minute switch. We were the last table in the back, on the inside row (there are only two rows). But Ann-Marie, our server, pointed out the two empty tables behind us, which weren't covered. As rain was threatening, they hadn't put us there, but she said we could move once the interaction started.
We barely got to the table with food before the trainer started talking. The pool is bigger than I expected, but laid out so that you can see most of it from every seat. I stood up pretty quickly and moved to the rail at the empty table. It was SO COOL. The orcas were as close as 10 feet from the glass at times. The trainers did a great job making sure everyone got a good view, and that you knew where to look when they were about to do something neat. We learned a lot about their life at Seaworld and their interactions with the training staff.
(Looking back at my pics, I want to be clearI had no fancy zoom on my camera. They were that close. I barely had time to get the camera out and turned on, let alone focus or zoom!)
I'd say the "show" took about 20 minutes. When it was over, we were feeling a little pressured to go, but our server made it clear we should take our time. She said they had started a little early because of the threatening rain, and we shouldn't feel rushed.
The food was good, but don't expect a Disney-style buffet. There were two kinds of meat, 3 or 4 salads, rice and potatoes, and the kids' table with fish sticks, chicken nuggets, hot dogs and mac and cheese. I particularly liked the bbq'd smoky chicken.
My son had FIVE hot dogs.
The dessert table had a couple of types of cake and a key lime pie, as well as some choc chip cookies. Everything was good, and everyone found something they enjoyed. While we ate we struck up a conversation with the family at the next table, who, it turned out, were from Yorkshire UK, with Irish connections. Dh and I have travelled to Yorkshire and Ireland, and we found lots to talk about. It really made the evening more fun for us.
We got our family photo and finally waddled off around 5:30. (3 substantial meals out today, and we were feeling sluggish.) It was starting to rain, and we made our way back to the "other side", ending up back at Antartica. I thought there was a back way you could get into the penguin exhibit without going through the ride, but we couldn't find it, so we gave up. By then the rain was steady, and we pulled out our ponchos and kept going. Dd really wanted to do Atlantis again, but the rides were closed due to the weather. We hung around a while, trying to wait it out, but had no luck. We did go into the "Jewels of the Sea Aquarium" outside Atlantis, and we enjoyed fish-ogling. The jellyfish there are especially neat to watch. On the way out of the park, I dragged the family to the dolphin nursery. There were two adult females there, and a two-month-old calf. They were just swimming laps together, but it was a lovely end to the day to stand and watch them, and talk to the staff member. The Seaworld staffers are in our experience uniformly warm and knowledgeable.
It was a lovely day. Seaworld is a special place, and we love viewing the animals.
Good to see you! I think LL is a spectacle of its own, and if there weren't so many other diversions, it would be worth it to wander around for the models and Cypress Gardens. But, you know, it's kind of a packed entertainment market! You wait for those grandkids! 
We had a FAB time at Dine with Shamu, by the way, thanks for helping us decide to do it. (I actually already have that day written up, but I am trying to catch up and keep my report in sequence.)
I am happy to hear that! 
