Getting Splashed by Shamu

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I had an early start this morning and went with Keely to meet her babysitting charges and help get them ready for their day summer camp. It was fun to meet the kids and they showed my all over the house and garden and then ate their breakfast while bombarding me with questions about England: 'What's the best thing about living in England? What's your oldest building? Do you have fairies in England? Do kids watch Spogebob Squarepants? Do you think the Queen would like bagels for breakfast?'
We finally got them away from the breakfast table, bundled into clothes and then into the car. We dropped them off at their camp and then set off for our own day trip to SeaWorld.

We went to the train station and bought our tickets. When the train finally arrived it was a double decker - the first double decker train I've ever been on! We attempted to search for a pair of free seats on the top deck but the conductor, a rather formidable middle aged woman, all but grabbed our tickets and pushed us into the nearest available seats. We meekly sat where we were told and waited until a few people got off the train and then moved to sit together. The conductor came back, stared hard at us, obviously recognised us and then tutted, grabbed our tickets from where they were stuck above our old seats, wrote our new seat numbers on them, pinned them over our current position and stalked off. I was left feeling like a disobediant school child who moves from their alloted place to sit with a friend!

We managed to reach San Diego without upsetting anyone else. We took a bus from the train station to the tram station, got on the tram and then took a taxi for the last part of the trip. We finally arrived at SeaWorld paid an extortiate amount for our tickets and went in. I had the confused impression of a Sea Life Centre clashed with a theme park... which I suppose is what SeaWorld really is. Still it was a little disconcerting to find myself in milling crowds of shrieking children, pushy adults and people selling candyfloss, burgers, hotdogs and ice creams. It wasn't quite the atmosphere I am used to at sea life centres!

We went first to the shark enclosure and I was quite relieved to discover there were actually animals hidden amongst the general chaos. After the sharks we walked around the open air enclosures and saw seals and flamingos and turtles. We found a pool of starfish which we were able to pick up and hold I hope there was a member of staff somewhere supervising the visitors. I didn't see one and the number of excited children made me nervous as excited children have a tendancy to grab. Still the starfish appeared to be ok and none of them was missing any limbs which was a relief. Keely and I each picked a starfish out of the pool and it was amazing to get so close to them - they are wonderful looking little creatures.

We then headed to one of the rides, the 'Shipwreck Rapids'. It proved to be a lot of fun although I was slightly worried about my choice of clothes. White skirts and a lot of water are never a good idea! WE clibed into the large faux tyre along with a family and set off. We bumped and splashed along and the little boy opposite me clung to his grandad and squealed excitedly all the way around. By luck I seemed to avoid the worst of the water splashing around us... until we approached the end and found we went directly through a waterfall and we all emerged on the other side completely drenched. Fortunately my camera was securely wrapped in a plastic bag to avoid damage and my skirt was lined and so didn't become completely see through.

Since we were already wet we decided to go and see the Shamu Show. Keely was insistent tht I meet 'Shamu' as she had been totally horrified back in England last year when she discovered I had never heard of Shamu. Shamu, I now know, was the name of the first female orca ever captured. She was obtained by SeaWorld san Diego in 1965 and eventually died in August 1971. 'Shamu', 'Namu' and 'Ramu' are now the stage names given to all orcas residing at the SeaWorld Parks.

The show was really good. I'm not sure I really approve of animals being made to do tricks but the animals are well cared for and have a huge living area. I also noticed that they used a different whale for each trick so no one animal was used for the entire show and the time each one spent performing was quite short.

The show, entitled 'Believe', began with a film of a boy on a beach seeing a killer whale from a distance. He takes his canoe out to see the whale and then carves a necklace of a whale's tail. As the film ended one of the trainers walked out wearing the pendant. The show was fun. Keely and I were sitting in the 'Splash Zone' although fortunately we were towards the back so we didn't get too wet. People sitting further forward however got well and truly soaked. The trainers showed us the signal for making the whales splash their tails which involved putting one hand up, then the other and crossing the thumbs in a 'butterfly' and then bringing it down in front of the face. The orcas really splashed the audience and while the people in front were squealing and throwing waterproofs ove rtheir heads I wondered while we were all still encouraging the whales who seemed to be enjoying throwing so much water around!

We spent the rest of the day wandering around the park. We went to the Base Station Wild Arctic which was a simulated jet helicopter ride. We sat inside a room which when the doors were closed gave a pretty good imitation of the interior of a helicopter. The 'windscreen' was soon filled with images of swirling snow and ice as we flew over the Arctic Circle to a remote research station. We saw polar bears, walruses and seals and narrowly missed a crash landing. Then we returned to the real world and went to see the real life arctic animals. On the way out we walked past a wall of ice - literally there was a huge block of ice set into one segment of the wall!

We spent a while longer exploring the park and then decided it was late enough. We took a taxi to the tram station and then took the tram to the train station. Our train wasn't due to arrive for sometime so we wandered over to a nearby Travel Lodge Inn. the place was surprisingly posh. We walked down the hallway hoping no-one would ask for proof we were staying there and located the bar at the end. We ordered lemonade and some kind of pizza bread and I enjoyed being in a relatively good reproduction of an English pub. We eventually made our way back to the train station and caught the late train home.

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Comments

[jeanie]

That's a big fish!!
OK so not a fish but pretty cute with baby! Great photos of an amazing place