As with many days on this trip we had an early start. We were doing the whole out tourist experience today, like we did with Coca Cola world and the Jack Daniels factory, today we were taking in another institution of the American tourist industry. SeaWorld!
SeaWorld is easy to find in San Diego, its sign posted on all the highways and it even has its own road. We drove in, parking was $15, slightly extortionate considering there was only SeaWorld here and nobody was going to park there for any other reason, Disneyland doesn’t charge for parking, Thorpe Park doesn’t charge for parking, SeaWorld on the other hand thinks they are more important.
The price of entry was an astounding $70 each! Incredible! We doubted whether we should enter, but after a bit of deliberation we paid the fare and entered, determined to get full value for money for our tickets!
The first thing we noticed was that there really wasn’t anybody around, we wondered for a bit but really there were few people. We eventually heard screams and roar of applause and headed in the direction of the excited cheers. It was the dolphins show area, and the show was running, we couldn’t get in because it was half way through, however we were able to stand behind and see the dolphins that had just finished performing. They did a couple of back flips and tricks with the trainers for us. It was amazing to see them being so obedient!
The shows are on twice a day, the are numerous shows, there is the dolphin show, Shamu’s killer whale show, the otter and sea lion show and the pet show.
We made our way over to the area where the next show after the dolphin show, that we had missed, was going to be. The Shamu’s killer whale show! It’s what SeaWorld is famous for, and it is supposed to be the most impressive show at the park. We seated ourselves in the splash zone, about 10 seats in, the splash zone did go up to the first 20 rows of seats and we decided to sit in the middle of it.
For such large beasts killer whales move extremely fast, you can see them under water through the piece of glass at the top of the tank as they zip by. Its incredible to think that they can be trained as well as they are. Killer whales are definitely a animal which is impressive, however I would have preferred to have seen them in their natural habitat, I will say however that SeaWorld provided a better photo opp. And yes, we got wet…
The show ended and we slowly made our way out of the stadium with the rest of the masses and made our way over to the aquarium, where there were any number of strange quirky creatures from the deep, there were some really cool fish that changed colour depending on how dark it was (you could press a button to change the light intensity in the tank). Apart from that, a fish is a fish, so we headed over to the Rapids, in which we had to awkwardly sit with a family of Mexicans, their son was petrified and I got on the wrong end of a waterfall.
The turtle area was a sad sight, unless they were rescued turtles (which it didn’t specify) these giants of the oceans were all cramped into a small tank, they were piling on top of each other, even as we were there we could see some of them biting each other, turtles are my favourite creature from the sea’s along with penguins, they just seem fun loving. The penguin enclosure is a different story, they have their own little world going on, and they appeared to love it!
Next we did went to go watch the seals and sea lions being fed, before moving onto the sea lion show, it was a comedy whereby the sea lions enacted out popular American TV shows, like CSI and Pop Idol etc. it was good and definitely entertaining, they looked like they were having fun, my favourite ‘actor’ was the otter though, it kept messing up! Also it has to be mentioned, but sea lions have incredible balance on their nose.
I decided that it would perhaps be a good idea to feed the flamingo’s, what I wasn’t expecting was to be attacked by one of them, I was trying to feed one when another one came over and started trying to eat my hand! It didn’t hurt as they don’t have teeth, but they do pinch! This flamingo then proceeded to attack all the rest of the flamingo’s and a duck! No manners.
The Dolphin show was on the cards and so off we went to go see what we had heard the crowds enjoying earlier. The show was extremely cheesy, with back stories and character lines that spun off into a tangent that really was a non requisite for the show, all I wanted to see was tricks from the dolphins! This show involved doves and a crane (the bird), it was great! We sat in the splash zone again, but didn’t get too wet, the dolphins had decided to focus their attention on another seating section, they spent a good minute continuously splashing one section of the crowd, and they got destroyed.
We then went to go see the polar bears chilling and took in the only real action ride in the park, where we got another good wash down and I did my tribute to Ace Venture (we were in an animal park after all).
Overall we felt like we had got our money’s worth, a great day out!
We returned to meet up with Farah and her roommates, we were going to go to a San Diego food Mecca, Phil’s BBQ! It is the must go place to eat in San Diego, everybody we met who had been to SD recommended we eat there, and definitely for good reason! We had at a time that we had to queue for about 30 minutes, Farah told us this is the shortest time she ever had to wait at Phil’s BBQ. Paolo and I ordered two plates, the taster plate, which had a small selection of ribs with two sides, and their famous pulled pork sandwich. Both were succulent and juicy, even the sides were a class of their own, it brings great sadness that you simply cant get food like this in England! It was great, simply put, it was great, every mouthful was as great and if not better than the last, the ribs just fell off the bone! It was not too salty, not too sweet many times I have come close to saying it, and I will perhaps verge on saying it now, but this is up there with the perfect BBQ, although just trumped perhaps by Salt Lick BBQ in Austin, Texas, but only by a pinch. Here is a picture of the food; there were 7 of us in total, which should explain the sheer amount of food.
There was a place in San Diego that we had to go, Mt Soledad in La Jolla, it is the same place that Ron Burgundy brings Veronica Corningstone in the film Anchorman and explains the origins of the name of the city. A breath taking view, there were only 5 of us by now, and we just sat up on the peak and stared out on the city enjoying the view, the police eventually came along and moved along everybody who was parked up on the peak, we had parked somewhere else and walked up though so we were able to stay, this meant that we had the place to ourselves, we had brought along a bottle of Jameson’s and had a few drinks up there while we simply enjoyed the view. The memory will last a long time and I plan to return.
Karaoke time! We then moved the night on by going to karaoke! Paolo had never been to a Korean style karaoke place, normally you have to wait an hour to sing the song you chose, Korean style is you get a room, fill it with your friends, and for an hour you get to sing all the songs you want! Except we were there for way over an hour, and we sang to our hearts content! We had shots of Jack in between songs and beers to wash them down, we had ups and downs, from Take That to Radiohead, Justing Timberlake to Justin Bieber, and we covered all the bases.
Some people just cant handle all the fun though and find it extremely tiring!
We got everybody home, it was late, around 2am, we continued to chat and sit around drinking until about 3am when someone suggested we got to Wal-Mart! Paolo being the only sensible person decided it would be better to sleep than to head to Wal-Mart, the rest of us clearly thought otherwise and we went! There was nobody there, it was open but we were the only customers that were stupid enough to go, when we got there we it clicked, why were we there? We wondered around the isles for a bit, but really there was no reason for us being there, I was trying to teach everybody how to Dougie in flip flops and I made a right royal fool of myself by slipping up, luckily the ground was there to break my fall. We headed back home for a bit of sleep, but once again we ended up on a tangent and the next thing I knew I was telling the girls ghost stories, and right at the end of one of them, a water pipe burst outside sending gushing water into the air, it was terribly loud and was a big shock! It was so loud that we had to go round closing all the doors and windows. The night still wasn’t over because Farah stuck on ‘The Princess and The Frog’ Disney movie, and I fell asleep watching that.
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1 comment:
well british boys certainly know how to have fun :) glad you enjoyed your whale's vagina adventure
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