Hi again, everyone! I hope you all had a great holiday weekend. We had a combined graduation party/tailgate at the Brewers game on Friday, then went to our town's fireworks show (which was awesome!). Sunday we went to the Brewers game again since it was one of the games in our season tickets. And today Dad, Claire, and I went to see WALL-E. We all sort of had a different reaction...Dad said it was strange but that there were some cute scenes, Claire really liked it, and I am sort of in between. WALL-E is adorable though!
Now back to my TR...
More Sea World Fun
Once we had seen all the shows, we were ready to explore the rest of the cool exhibits Sea World had to offer. Our first stop was Wild Arctic. This is sort of a "ride"/walk-through exhibit. You can either choose to "fly" on a helicopter or walk. We chose to walk (I'm not exactly sure but I think the ride is sort of like a motion simulator type thing and well, seeing as I'm not exactly a fan of those rides...). The wait was also a little shorter for the walking version. First they show you a short video before you are able to see the animals. This exhibit featured beluga whales, walruses, and polar bears. I wasn't able to take too many pictures since it was pretty dark inside. We first came to a pool with beluga whales. They had an employee talking about belugas which was pretty interesting. She was saying how when the whales are first born they are gray in color but then they get their whitish color when they get older. After watching the whales for a bit we continued on the exhibit which had some underwater viewing locations. Here's the belugas from underwater:
I also took this short video of the walrus...it was huge!
On the way out of the exhibit we stopped in the giftshop where Dad bought us both a little pin (thanks, Dad!). It has polar bears on it and also our name. We decided to get one for Emma too as a little surprise. Since it was close by, we decided to check out the underwater viewing spot for the killer whales. I saw these performers right outside the Wild Arctic:
I'm not sure which of the whales we saw but it was so neat watching them under the water.
At one point one swam right up to the glass and was looking right at me...it was almost like it wanted me to take his picture! SO COOL!
I seriously could have watched the whales all day...they're such beautiful animals.
Here's a couple that Dad took of us:
After saying good-bye to the whales we went to see the Budweiser Clydesdale horses. I think they had about 6 horses there as well as a couple dalmatians. Every year at the Wisconsin State Fair they have some Bud horses too so Dad asked the lady there how many teams there are. She told us there's six teams of horses that travel around the country. The ones at our state fair usually come from St. Louis. They also had one of the horses out so you could take your picture by it.
The horse's name was Kelly and after we got our picture taken with him (yes, it was a male!) we got to pet him which was cool.
On the way out we spotted this little donkey. He looked so sad and lonely I had to take a picture by him...he was like a real life Eeyore! LOL.
Our next stop was the shark exhibit. Before you enter the building they have a couple pools with small sharks. But the main attraction is the huge walk-through tunnel where you're pretty much surrounded by different types of sharks.
Then we headed back toward the Penguin Encounter. This time the sun had risen so we got to see them in the light.
There were so many penguins and it was funny how some of them were standing there like they were taking guard of their environment.
We also stopped to see the puffins again for a little bit. Those were definitely one of Claire's favorites.
Next up were the manatees, or "sea cows".
They have an outdoor viewing location so you could see them from above the water and also an indoor portion.
It was getting pretty humid outside so going into the air conditioned building was a nice break from the heat. Inside we were able to see the manatees from underwater.
The manatees were so cute. It's really sad that they're so endangered.
One of our final stops for the day was the dolphin cove. Again, we were able to see the animals from the underwater viewing spot and in the cove.
We really wanted to see the dolphins up close so we made our way to the cove. At the cove you're able to stand right by to the pool and get up close and personal with the dolphins. It was really neat and we were hoping one would come close enough that we'd be able to pet it. Right as we got there a couple of the trainers went into the water to "play" with the dolphins.
Some of the dolphins came so close to us but unfortunately not close enough that we were able to pet them (well, atleast without falling in the water!)
I think they were more concerned with getting their fish!
Needless to say this was definitely one of my favorite experiences of the whole day. Being so close to the animals was amazing.
By this time we were getting tired and were ready for a break so the last thing we did was the stingray lagoon. They have a big pool filled with stingrays where you can feed and pet them. We didn't feed them but did pet them. They felt slimy and slippery! Sadly I have no pictures from this exhibit.
On the way out we stopped in another giftshop where I picked up a Sea World souvenir book that I hope to add to my classroom library. Overall it was a really enjoyable day. We were able to see so many amazing animals. I loved it! If you have never been to Sea World, I recommend giving it a try some day. It's a great experience and hey, you might learn something along the way too.
up next: Downtown Disney
Definitely worth the extra expense for us.
which actually was pretty cool) but I think it was too many thrills for me. Emma and I both had pounding headaches after going on one of the wooden roller coasters. 
) Here's one of the trainers whale-surfing.
