The Sea World Adventure That Almost Wasn't

I love adventure. In my lifetime, I have walked the beaches of Normandy, set sail on the Baltic Sea, Climbed the Eiffel Tower, snorkeled off the beaches of Hawaii, visited the ancient ruins of Mexico, ridden the Russian railroad, toured the Neuschwansteine castle, visited the Dachau Concentration Camp, gotten lost in the French countryside, and rang the bell of Notre Dome,  but in all my thirty-something years, I've never been to Sea World. Nope. Been to San Diego once, but not to Sea World. Neither had Cory. Until now. This was the adventure of a lifetime.

This trip was a little different than all the rest. This time, we had four little, and I mean little, kids.  Everything we worried about when planning the trip was just as we thought it would be. Traveling with four small boys 1400 miles in the car isn't easy.

Two of those boys go the bathroom every half hour. It wasn't until on the way home that we learned there was an easier way to take care of that - we just let them pee in a cup. They thought that was pretty cool. No, Mom and Dad didn't get any sleep the entire trip. Imagine 7 of us (my niece Jordan got to come with us and what a life save she was), two of those babies who are used to their cribs, crammed in a motel room for 4 nights.Of course we hadn't counted in the fact that at least one person would be sick the whole trip. Poor Ben had strep. We almost decided not to even go, but decided we could make a trip to Instacare and after 24 hours Ben was supposed to be feeling better. Not so.  Thank goodness another trip to Instacare took care of it. I got to spend all of about 4 hours at Sea World  and got to see my brother and sister-in-law for about 5 minutes (thanks guys for taking the boys while we went to Instacare, even though everyone thought all 6 of those little blonde boys were yours) and most of the rest of the time in the motel room. 2 1/2 days traveling, and 2 1/2 days full of fun and excitement was just about enough for 4 small boys, not to mention two tired stressed out parents. Sleep  schedules, eating schedules, play schedules etc. just aren't possible when you're running from exhibits

 

to rides 

to shows at Sea World,

 

or driving around trying to find parking so we could visit the USS Midway for about 10 minutes before it's time to board the Hornblower for a whale watching adventure.

So, was it worth it? It certainly was. If you could have seen the look on the boys faces as they watched the whale show and dined with Shamu,

if you could have heard their laughter as the ocean licked their toes while they played on the beach, if you could have seen the excitement as they boarded the boat and headed out to go find whales on the ocean, it was worth it. Of course we won't mention the beautiful blue skies, no snow or the fact that Sea World has a Hail to the Heroes program for service men and woman that got our whole family in for free (thanks Anheuser-Busch for your support, even though we don't support you). You betya it was worth it. I am so glad I got to share this adventure with my boys. Now I can say I've been there, done that. Would I do it again? Give me a few years. Thanks Abby for planning our trip for us. If anyone ever needs a good trip planner, Abby is your woman.

Now, let's see. What's next on my adventure  list???