Day 23 - San Diego Seaworld and Ageing Rockers

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Day 23 - San Diego Seaworld and party on the beach, Distance Travelled - 24 miles

Time for Merlin to be awoken from the vast hotel carpark, roof down and a quick blast along the coast 12 miles to Seaworld San Diego. We parked up and once again upgraded our California City Passes to front of the line access.

Despite being a Saturday, the park was reasonably quiet and we covered quite a bit. The Atlantis ride was very impressive including both water ride and rollercoaster in one, but couldn't tempt Shassy to take her feet off the ground. All the usual exhibits were there that you'd expect including Dolphin and Sealion interaction, ray feeding, sea otters etc. We also spent a lot of time in the wild artic experience watching the beautiful white Beluga whales playing and interacting with trainers and visitors . The polar bears were magnificent and the parks two enormous Walruses were just plain scary!

After another roller coaster ride alone on the 'Manta' I finally talked Shas into taking a ride on the shipwreck reef, water ride. It's just one of those big 8-10 seater water rides on a big rubber tyred boat, no upside down loops or steep drops, what harm could it be?We came off the ride soaked to the skin, mainly from guys on the side of the ride who pay 25 cents to soak you with water cannon ( that cost me a lot of quarters to pay for that 'hit' ;-))

The highlights as ever were the Killer Whale and a dolphin shows, it always amazes me how many people are willing to sit in the front 15 rows of the 50 row enormous outdoor theatres to get soaked. Always great to watch the little kids standing right up against the glass as the huge tsunami created by the whales, engulfs them. The trainers no longer get in with the Killer whales as they did in the old days after a couple of 'accidents' so that show is over very quickly, but I got some great pics. The dolphin show went on for much longer, mainly because one of the overhead trapeze hoists got stuck with a gymnast still dangling from it, would have been more fun if it was over the killer whale pool! They eventually got her down and the show carried on.

After a few more 'essential' souvenir purchases, we headed for home for a quiet night. There was a note under our door advising that the Waste Management boys and girls were having one last big do on the beach to close their conference so there Might be some noise. On opening the curtains it was clear There would definitely be more than 'some noise'. A full size stage had been erected on the beach complete with tables, chairs,bar boys, lights, banks of speakers...the works!

At 8:00 the boys from 'World Classic Rockers ' stepped on stage. They call themselves a supergroup and are composed of musicians from Steppenwolf, Santana, Journey, Boston and Lynard Skynyrd? Whilst some of the 80's blonde perms had disappeared the sounds were still there and they launched into all the back catalogues of their respective bands. Sharan had never heard of any of them but you knew some of the songs very well....'More than a feeling', 'oye como va', 'don't stop believing' ( without the stripping commandos!)', sweet home Alabama' and 'born to be Wild' to name a few!

We ate on the terrace of the hotels signature 1500 restaurant overlooking the beach and concert and I have to say it was one of the best meals of the trip ( after my bacon and beans barby in Palm Beach of course!). We carried on drinking till the concert broke up and the meandered back to the room through the waste management boys and girls heading for one or two last cocktails at the bar before their departure in the morning!

Two more days to go....

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Comments

[Mum]

Great pics especially the one with the whales all lined up except 1......just like a naughty kid!