Sea World and sunburn

Today we went to Sea World! Tracie and I went with Casey and the three Fros, and Aunt Deb to the park for a day of fun and excitement. We also met up with Casey's friend Lisa, her husband Chad and their three kids. So we wound up with a herd of six kids and six adults to watch them all.

It's really quite amazing how much activity six kids under the age of seven can generate. With all of them running around and playing with each other, it seemed like a swarm of bumblebees going in every direction. They were however very well behaved and everyone got along well.

We had a lot of fun and we covered a lot of the attractions at the park, but we could have easily spent another day there and not repeated anything. We saw the sea lion show, the dolphin show, the dog, cat and other pets show, the Cirque show and my favorite, the Sesame Street 3D show. I love Grover and Bert & Ernie!

All of the animal shows were quite entertaining and I was impressed with the skills the animals can be trained to perform, and with the way the trainers all interacted with the animals. You really can tell that the trainers love their jobs and the animals they work with.

By the end of the day, we were happy and tired, and more than a little sunburnt. We'd put on sunscreen earlier in the day, but reapplication never happened, so we all wound up a little bit fried. Despite the sunburn, it was a wonderful day. I really enjoyed it because I took charge of nothing. Casey and Lisa made all of the decisions about what to see and when. I didn't even look at a map...I just followed the ladies around and made sure all six kids were accounted for. Not having any responsibility for making decisions made the visit incredibly relaxing!

Once we got back to the hotel, Tracie and I decided we wanted breakfast for dinner. So, we consulted Yelp and found a good local diner called The Encinitas Cafe which served breakfast. We headed over there, had a tasty breakfast/dinner and came back to the hotel.

Tomorrow, breakfast with the family and rehearsal dinner!

Going to California

No, not the Led Zeppelin song, cool though it may be. We headed to San Diego for Tracie's cousin's wedding this weekend. Since we'll be there for four nights, we decided that renting a car would be more expensive than driving our own, so we hit the road in our RAV4 at lunchtime today. We stopped at Costco for gas and a cheap hot dog lunch, then headed out of town. It was a fairly uneventful drive, with stops for restrooms and refreshments in Gila Bend and Yuma.

We listened to an audio book most of the way, which really made the 7 hour drive fly by. We made it to the hotel at about 7:00 and quickly left again in search of dinner. By random chance, we came to a Mexican restaurant called La Especial Norte on the Coast Highway. It was a fairly hole-in-the-wall place, but the food was fantastic! It was definitely one of the best Mexican dinners we've had in a while.

Tomorrow, Sea World with the Fromily!