San Diego Days 6&7 (Sea World)

The next day we woke up and no one felt like going to Sea World.   Our sunburns were killing us and hanging out in the sun sounded miserable.  So, we enjoyed a nice leisurely morning and then went to an early lunch at another place recommended to us...Hash House a Go Go.

Look how happy Matt looks with his red face...

Matt, Abby, Ben and I all got monster pancakes (well, Ben's wasn't a monster).  We all enjoyed our food and had a hard time finishing it.

Afterward, we drove back over to Coronado.

This had been our plan for our second beach day which was now out of the question.

Instead, we just did a little shopping and then Andy and I had a short date while the kids sat in the pleasantly cool car (Ben was recovering from a seizure). We walked along the beach in front of the beautiful Hotel Coronado.  It was so lovely!  Then we walked a bit through the lobbies and gift shop.   

From what I can recall, after that we just went back to the hotel and relaxed.  (some in our party were miserable)

The next day we "forced" our children to go to Sea World.

They knew it was our last chance to go, so sunburns or not, we went.

I stood in line and got a special pass for Ben which I don't think we ever ended up using.

One of our first stops was the Sesame Street Bay of Play.  Ben had kind of hard time standing and waiting in line for the ride but he was excited to see Elmo...

Then we went to the Orca show.  We were able to get some great seats with Ben's hybrid stroller/wheelchair.

The show was super impressive even though I didn't get any really good shots of the whales...always too early or too late :(

We also saw the dolphin show.  Matt wanted to sit in the splash zone for that one so I joined him down close and didn't dare have my camera out for pictures but it was pretty fun and we did get wet :)

Andy took Matt and Abby to ride The Manta roller coaster.

Here they are in line...

After it was over Matt was sorry he had gone.  He felt pretty sick and I don't know that he'll ever ride another roller coaster.

Abby enjoyed it :)

When they got off Josh, Ben and I met them and hung out at the manta petting pool...

For the Sea Lion show Abby, Matt and I went down close and the other boys stayed up high where the wheelchair seating was.  We were all pretty hot and tired at this point but this cute show cheered us up...

Then we headed over to the Arctic area and saw penguins, belugas and the like...

The map of SeaWorld showed a sloth habitat so Josh got excited but we could not find it!  We were beginning to think it wasn't really a thing...even after asking some workers who confirmed its existence but gave us directions that didn't help.  Finally, Andy found it tucked away in a tiny place that seriously, no one would think to go. 

We sure were glad we found it though because that sloth was putting on a show!

She was climbing around the whole time we watched which was substantial.

Even one of the workers came out of the back door of a nearby gift shop and commented on how it was such a rare thing to see her so active.

I only wish the glass would have been cleaner so we could have seen better...

However, Josh was more than satisfied so we were happy :)

Three of us really wanted to go on the Shipwreck Rapids ride as the day wound down.  We wished we would have thought to do it earlier because it was getting chilly and yet, we were about to get wet!  It would have been a much more pleasant thing in the heat of the day.  I just realized too, those of us that wanted to do it were the sunburned ones :)

Anyway, we waited in line for quite a while and Andy took Josh and Ben back to the car to grab our jackets and blankets for the evening.

As we saw people come off the ride dripping wet and shivering we questioned our good judgement but we stuck to our guns and finally got our turn.

Yes, we were freezing afterward and yes, we ended up paying big bucks for a multi person heater/dryer thing afterward :)

A friend of mine ended up being in San Diego at the same time we were and she posted on Instagram that the night show was spectacular so we decided to stay for it.  I quickly ran to a gift store for souvenirs while the others got food since we hadn't had time before, and frankly, we didn't have enough jackets so I bought a couple of hoodies while I was at it.

We hurried and ate and then got our seats for the show...

Matt was able to talk me into buying a couple of hot chocolates...

We were really glad we chose to stay!

Cirque Electrique was amazing!

The pictures really don't do it justice...

Blurry, but these trapeze artists were fun...

This one is hard to see but it was a jet ski that did all kinds of flips and tricks and things...

This guy had some kind of contraption on him that used the water to propelled him into the air. . He was zooming all over the place!

These guys were dancing and jumping off of this tower and bouncing back up off of the trampolines at the bottom.

The last few minutes, all four of the acts performed together...pretty cool!

Even leaving SeaWorld was cool...all kinds of lasers and lights and music bade us farewell...

...and Ben played contentedly on his iPad...it looks like temple run was his choice of the day.  Actually, I think that was his pick of the trip.  He was on that app often during the vacation.

We had a fabulous time in San Diego! (minus the sunburns...the pain had Abby in tears multiple times and lasted for weeks for the two of us).

The next day we started our trek home.  Right around St. George, Andy decided to power through and drive all the way home that night.

We didn't have long to recover before we needed to gear up for our next outing...the Bryan family gathering in Bear Lake!