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Published: July 25th 2013
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First let's get the hotel out of the way. Our previous hotels were all very functional, but not the greatest, just spreading the Hilton points love around. So thought I'd throw some large points at Hilton Bayfront, and the view from our corner room across the bay is fantastic. Food wise it's a little strange (no exec lounge - Rodders would not approve), as upon check-in we are given vouchers for breakfast at Starbucks and evening appetisers at their lounge. So one drink and one food at Starbucks and one food and one non-alcoholic drink at lounge for 2 people. Strange stuff but we went with it the first evening/morning, and nothing was great. However it transpired they have a perfectly good restaurant that does breakfast for $25, so why not just give us vouchers there as it's B&B. Oh well, you live and learn and we went out in the car to Sea World.
My driving has improved immensely since we arrived although la famiglia may disagree. What is difficult however is the ability to follow the directions of a sat nav that only speaks to you when you're already in one lane (right) and it proceeds to tell
you to turn left. The only saving grace was that Diane managed to get rid of the whiny American voice and get Emily The Posh Brit up and running, it tempers the situation slightly when it all goes wrong.
Anyway, Sea World or rip off world as I now like to think of it. It wasn't a great start when after driving into the middle of nowhere, I was charged $15 to park the car. In the absence of personal flight or a machine to beam us there I'm not sure how I could have avoided this. Then Aidan and I sidestepped the bag check with a certain grace and style and joined the queue for tickets. Sadly I had no 2 for 1 offers cut out from a Frosties box as I'd use for Alton Towers or Chessington, so had to suck up the full cost. The Zoo treated Under 12's as children and there were half price, Sea World has it's own policy which is children are under 10, so Aidan was the full adult price - total entry fee for 3 therefore $240, thus I politely declined the extra $20 per person for having a queue
jumping gadget.
There were a handful of rides on offer, so we went on the rapids to start and both Diane and I got soaked through, leaving Aidan (he who loves getting soggy) dry as a bone. No problem we had 6 hours in 30 degree heat to dry out, so well-timed in my opinion. The attraction map in my pocket was a write-off though. Again being a bloke, I don't need a map, it's instinct that gets you around. The dolphins were playful as ever, and Aidan fed some fish bits to some very vocal sea lions.
After that Aidan probed a starfish and rubbed up some Bat Rays - all in a days work for an epic explorer, completed by trips in the skytower for a park panoramic view and the cable car ride across the bay and back. Our final encounter took us to the Arctic, where we happened upon Polar Bears, a massive Walrus, and Aidan's new favourite creature the Beluga Whale. Of course all exits from these encounters take you through the customary shop, where Aidan's goo goo eyes worked a treat and he left with a furry Beluga friend!!!
Tired, and
the long yomp back to the car complete we headed home. We tunred out of the park and into the left lane, cue shatnav information to turn right at the junction -argh!! I had to turn left, but the plan wasn't to turn left left, i.e. ont othe wrong side. Doh, a car flashed the lights, I realised the error of my ways but as there was only 1 car, I spun aound to sit next to him at the lights, now of course facing the right direction and the way we wanted to go anyway - quality, told you it's just instinctive.
We had planned to eat at Phil's legendary BBQ, but the queue was massive, so we headed back to hotel, put on dry clothes and went to Hard Rock San Diego instead. Another day done, tomorrow time to leave the city and head back to Vegas. Can we make this journey trouble free??
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