Sea World Part One

Did you know that going to Sea World at 1 in the afternoon probably isn't the best plan? And that not only do you pay from $51-80 for a ticket, depending on the options that you choose, but that parking costs an additional $12?

We saw the sea lion show first, and it was okay. A little tamer than I would have liked, but cute. This shot is of Clyde and his trainer goofing off while they're supposed to be marching. I didn't get a photo of the most awesome part of the show. The trainer says she's thirsty, and a trained river otter comes out from backstage walking on it's hind feet and gives her a soft drink.











We decided to get a two-day pass (even though we only planned to go one day) because it included a behind the scenes tour. Only seven people showed up for that tour, so our guide didn't even use her microphone. Her name was Keleigh.* Keleigh took us to see the newest dolphin of the park and her mom. I didn't get a good photo of them, unfortunately. According to our guide, the little dolphin hasn't learned how to stop swimming yet, but she has advance to the turning while swimming phase.

The moray eels here are in a tank covered with an acrylic plate so you can take a photo that looks like you're touching them.









Also, Sea World rescues all kinds of animals. They frequently rehabilitate seals, sea lions, elephant seals, birds like macaws and parrots, dolphins and whales, and also turtles.

This is, I think, a seal. Any of the animals that can be released back into the wild are released. One exception to this is manatees, because they are, according to Keleigh, dumber than a box of rocks. They will get themselves tangled in a net seven days in a row without remembering that they maybe shouldn't go near the stringy thing with holes.











Every day when the park opens, the staff allow some of the flamingos to walk around the park. They call it the Flamingo Parade. Unfortunately we were too late and missed the parade this morning, but we got to see those flamingos in their pen yesterday.

While we were there two or five of the birds started squabbling, hitting each other with their beaks and making really loud noises. Sort of like brothers and sisters.








*Like SanDeE*, no one will ever spell her name right.

More Zoo Photos

This giraffe family has a relatively new member there in the back. I think our tour guide said he's only a few months old.
They stayed together while we looked at them as another larger giraffe chewed on the metal of their enclosure.

















We saw both Timon here and Pumbaa while at the zoo. The warthogs and other pigs were the animals not hiding in caves. Only Timon of his group stayed above ground.

















We had already been at the zoo for a while and so didn't go see the apes, but this guy got the closest to the glass of any of the monkeys that we saw. I tried to take a video on my camera but apparently I don't know how to do that. Oh well.

At the Zoo

We spent five hours at the San Diego Zoo on Monday. It's bloody 'uge! We didn't get there until around noon, so a lot of the animals had already gone through their active period.

Brad and Aldrea and I sat on the top of the double decker bus for a tour of the zoo, and Brad got sunburned. Through his shirt.

Aldrea and I got a tiny bit pink, even more so yesterday at Sea World.

This lynx had some friends in his cage, two of whom did some mutual grooming.










This is the last image that I took at the zoo. The stripes on these zebras were so clean looking, like the painter had just removed his tape.

We're off to Sea World to catch some of the stuff we missed yesterday, so more later.

Animals!

Going to the zoo! Photos later. That is all.

The Bay

My niece, who has chosen the name Aldrea for this blog, and I just went down to the water. Here is a photo of the house where we're staying:













Here is a view of the boats in the bay from the living room patio:




When she put her feet in the water to see how cold it is, she startled a ray and it swam a little bit away from her. It took me a long time to see it, and I would have taken a photo but it blended right into the sand. And, then it buried itself so neither of us could see it.





We're having a wonderful leisurely time so far. Though we did go out for a burger and hit two restaurants where we couldn't eat. The first, Sandbar, doesn't admit under 21, and the second, Pacific Beach Bar and Grill, doesn't serve burgers at 12:15, only brunch buffet until 1.




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So, instead we went to Fatburger.

We're Here!

We're here in San Diego! It's beautiful, and the weather has been nothing but awesome. We arrived at our rental house and the bay is so peaceful. I think that choosing Mission Bay instead of Mission Beach was the right choice, it's calm and not nearly as loud and raucous as the beach, and it's only a short walk across the street to get to the beach.

I'll try to upload some photos later of both the bay, the beach and the house. I think we're going to go down the street and check out the amusement park called Belmont park. But first, lunch.

Bad Poetry

Want to read some really bad poetry? Come on, all the cool kids are doing it.
I've only gotten one submission, so I posted one of my poems from creative writing in high school.

Go and laugh, you know you'd love to laugh at a bad poem about fairies. I mean, faeries.
I was so proud of my ability to rhyme, too.

Leaving for San Diego Soon

We leave for San Diego on Saturday. So far, I don't really know what we'll be doing when not at ComicCon, but probably the zoo, and maybe Seaworld and maybe LegoLand.

I bought some touristy books and one of those awesome pop-out maps. I've bought those for almost every place that I've been. All the overseas ones anyway, except for Nice.

They've posted the entire schedule for the con finally, so if you're interested you can see it here.

I was pretty excited about the autograph area, too, because the first four people listed were:
Katey Sagal
Lindsey Wagner
Richard Hatch
Erik Estrada

Now, last year they had Kelli Moroney, who I would love to meet.

Here's a photo of the view from where we'll be staying:














I'll be trying to blog while we're there, so stay tuned. My brother Brad will be bringing his laptop, so if he's not using it I guess that I will be.

Saturday with Cletus and Chloe

I hope you had a Happy Fourth! Poor me, no fireworks this year.

Went to Useless* on Saturday to hang out by my sister Chloe's pool. It was DAMN HOT, so I spent a good deal of time on the couch inside, mostly because I didn't feel like swimming.

I forgot to bring a camera, so have no photos from this particular holiday. That kinda sucks, but I'll remember next time.

My sister's about 11 months pregnant with a girl. She's naming the baby after my mom, but with a rather unusual middle name. The baby's name will be Mary "I'll kick your Damn Ass" Smith, (or whatever I decide their last name is this month.)

Next week we'll have a baby shower. I'm in charge of the cake. Have I said that I hate baby showers lately? Wedding/bridal showers too. Not my thing, especially the pastel colors, stupid games and all about the childbirth experiences of each and every woman there. Which, don't get me wrong, I totally respect these women and their lives and their stories, but I'm not sure that I really need to know which of the women I know have had an episiotomy (since I've already heard about it four times.)


*AKA Euless, a suburb of Dallas that's usually grouped with its sister cities Hurst and Bedford in conversation.
As in, "Hey, I was in HEB this weekend visiting relatives."

Thursday's Cat

Pretty and with a sense of humor. How often does that happen?
Sadly, his brother has no sense of humor. This is why he gets all worked up running around the living room and bites me when I try to pet him.

Sketchblog

I was looking at blogger's Blogs of Note and from there went to Sketchblog, by Rob Sheridan. He's done a great and irreverent digital painting of cereal mascots, and also a really detailed how-to.

One of the reasons to love this series of tubes.

Same Bunny?

This might be the same bunny, but now he's in the front yard. The cats were fascinated with him all day, and wouldn't leave the window. The first photo that I tried with my mom's camera (a Nikon D50) had the flash bouncing off the window. That was a great photo. (sarcasm)









The next few I tried different settings but the camera wanted to focus on the leaves of the bush instead of the rabbit. Finally got a few, but only two good enough to post.