Sea World!

Today was Charlotte's first trip to a theme park!!! Sea World has been doing a thing where teachers get in free, so one of my fellow masochists and I took advantage of that and the sweltering heat to pack up the diaper bag, stroller, and baby, and take off for Orlando. I'll try to make it about Charlotte, post some pics, and leave it at that...but oh.MY.god. do I hate (HATE) people sometimes. I mean, if you're going to a theme park, there are some things you should remember:

• If you're standing in line, get in line. If you're not in the line, GET OUT OF THE LINE.
  
• Just because it's hot, you do not have carte blanche to bare as much skin as possible.


• At Sea World, the animals are in the water. You are not. You do not need to wear a bathing suit, or a towel, or anything else that you would wear to a "water" park. If you do choose to wear these garments, you should still wear regular clothing.
  
• WEAR A FREAKING BRA. Seriously. Some young women *may* be able to get away with it, but the problem is that a) the ones who can't don't seem to realize it, and b) many women do not seem to realize when they stop being able to get away with it, and they keep going and going and going...and by "they," to whom am I referring? You be the judge.


• If you're walking, and you just randomly stop, you do NOT get to give me a dirty look when I run your ass over.

OK...that was my abbreviated list of thoughts from today. I'm sure there are more, but this isn't about me, remember? So...when we first got there, I tried to get a picture of Charlotte, but I quickly discovered that she was already hot and there was too much going on, and therefore she was not in the mood, and also that people are just freaking rude and walk in front of you! omg. Anyway.

So here's Charlotte at the entrance to Sea World

We walked around the park, and spent most of our time looking at the animals and exhibits. I think we could have done that OR go to the shows, but not both. We ate lunch when we got here, and ran into some of my students, and believe me when I say that I was not ready to hear "Mrs. Webster?!?!!?!" for several more weeks!

The first animals we saw were the sea lions, and there were all these little babies and they were SO cute! And their water looked really, really nice from out in the hot, humid August-in-Florida weather.

From there we went to the penguins, which I loooove (they're so cute!), but it brought us to the first of many annoyances: in order to go anywhere at Sea World, you have to take the baby out of the stroller and leave it parked with a million other strollers. I was actually privy to this in advance, as Tara had warned me, but I underestimaed how much of a pain in the ass I would find it. Get the baby out, put the baby in, get the baby out, put the baby in...diaper bag on, diaper bag off. See where I'm going with this?

Anyhow, the penguins were fun, as was the shark exhibit. The sharks are featured in a 124 ft. long cylindrical tank through which vistors move on a conveyor belt, the better to watch and not worry about silly things like stumbling over other people's kids. Sorry. There I go again...

Charlotte's eyes were about as round as saucers while we went through the tank. I'm not sure she had any idea what she was looking at, but she seemed to like it!

We almost got eaten at the entrance to the sharks! Ahhhh! (OK, lame, I know...)

This was next to the sea dragons. They look like plants. Way cool.


Having a snack!

We did take in one show while we were there--a Cirque du Soleil-esque performance featuring dance and acrobatics and really loud music. Charlotte was all about the dancing, colors, and light, but she was not so much into the loud music or the lack of a nap. During most of the show she was torn between watching, hiding in my cleavage, and trying to sleep on my shoulder.

Then it was off to the Arctic exhibit, with the polar bears and beluga whales. Charlotte didn't seem to mind the ice at all...in fact, she seemed fascinated by it!

After the Wild Arctic, Charlotte managed to catch a quick catnap in her stroller...

...and woke up in time to hang out with Mommy, then Auntie Indira, while we took turns going on the new roller coaster, Manta. It's a pretty cool ride; similar to other "bottomless" or floorless coasters, except that it folds up on itself so you take the whole ride facedown. Fun times, especially with the screaming teenagers next to me.

All in all, it was a pretty good day. I think Sea World was a good choice to introduce Charlotte to the world of theme parks, since there's lots of stuff to look at and not as many rides. We were only there for a few hours, but it was long enough to wear her out! She slept al the way home, but woke up in time to have dinner with Daddy, have a quick bath, and head off to bed! She was a tired, tired little girl!