It's the middle that counts: Sea World

Our Sea World Trip was a HUGE success. We drove down on to Austin on Friday, it was a long drive with lots of traffic. I got a great recommendation for a restaurant in Westlake that had an awesome outdoor area with a huge sandbox and playground. The kids ran off some steam while Andrew and I relaxed at the picnic tables and ate dinner. It was a great way for them to run off steam after the long drive. We then headed to the hotel (thanks Dad:) and Andrew put Jack down while Emma and I walked around. She was so excited to stay in the hotel and ran around the room in total awe. Look at the mini coffee pot she exclaimed it was too cute. It was a two room suite so Emma, Andrew and I shared a king sized bed while Jack slept in the port-a-crib in an adjoining room. It worked out well and we all got a good night sleep.

We woke up Saturday ate breakfast at the hotel and headed to San Antonio. We met Amy, Fernando, Marissa and Mark at the McDonalds by Sea World then headed into the park. We actually got season passes since they were the same cost as daily passes so we will go back!

We had an amazing day. The kids loved the azul show (beluga whales, dolphins, acrobats, divers and swimmers), even Jack watched in awe the whole 30 minutes. We saw all the attractions and had a great lunch. Jack fell asleep for a while which was nice as he really needed a nap, it is so nice to have a kid that naps in a stroller. The Shamu show was a little boring. The trainers can't get in the water so it was just whales jumping every so often, the kids were bored and so were we. The sea lion show was great and really entertaining.

Hands down the best part of the day was feeding the Sea Lions and dolphins. You buy fish 4 for $4 and can feed them. The sea lions you stand outside and kind of just drop them into the water, but the dolphins are up close and personal. It was an amazing experience for all of us!

We played in the water, on the play ground and all around.

Later we headed back to a hotel on the Riverwalk. We ate dinner then spent time swimming before we all headed to bed for the night. We shared a suite with Amy's family and it was really good, we got lots of sleep and the kids enjoyed spending so much time together. Sunday Emma headed back with Amy and Jack, Andrew and I drove back to Fort Worth.

Overall I can not tell you how much I recommend Sea World for a family vacation. It is not cheap, it was about $150 for our family to get in for the day (in addition to food, drinks and fish food). But those are season passes so next time we go back it will not cost us really anything. It was a long drive from Fort Worth so I am glad we broke it up on the way, and wish we had time to break it up on the way back. We will go again, probably the weekend of Emma's birthday. This is an open invitation for every one to join us, the more the merrier.

Here are some pictures from our trip, I know some of them are sideways and even upside down, but I used my point and shoot instead of my SLR and for some reason can not get them to rotate. While I love having a smaller portable camera for these types of days it is a pain when getting them edited and uploaded.

Jack checking out the fish at the aquarium, probably his favorite part