Our Saturday "Expenture"

If going to Sea World:

1-Never go on a Saturday

2-Never go when it is over 100 dgs (before humidity)

3- For pete's sake bring your kid a hat or umbrella or some sort of shading mechanism

4-Freeze your water bottles beforehand

5-Don't eat at the nearest Wendy's


Earlier this year we purchased season passes to Sea World. We only live an hour and a half away and the season passes were only about $6 more than a day pass, so we forked out the dough and did it. We hadn't been back since, and since the days that I can walk are getting limited (I am assuming that since I have been full out waddling for two months that my ability to walk is going to disappear some day soon), we decided Saturday was our day.

Since we knew Gwen wasn't up for a full day at Sea World, we took our time in the morning and got out the door around 10:30AM. Not too bad. We were a little discouraged because when we looked on Google Maps it said that Sea World was two hours, not just an hour and a half. We were not deterred though. This was going to be an ultra fun Saturday.

So, it took us THREE AND A HALF hours to get to Sea World. I don't get Texas traffic, particularly that of I-35. Where are all the people going on Saturday. I miss Utah where traffic is a non-issue on the weekend and during weird hours of the day/night. In my experience I-35 has the most absurd traffic patterns, and we hit it hard on Saturday.

We stopped for lunch at a Wendy's that was pretty close to Sea World. I had my heart set on this delicious grilled chicken sandwich Blaine had gotten the last time we were there. I ordered and they said it would be 8 minutes until it was ready. Made to order, I like it! I was happy to wait my eight minutes while gulping down my frosty and fries (and consequentially getting a slight tummy ache). When they brought out my freshly prepared sandwich I was pretty excited. . . and then I took a bite. It was unlike anything I have ever tasted and the only thing I could compare it to would be chomping down on a rubber bouncy ball. The chicken looked cooked, it was white, obviously they did something to it for eight minutes, but it had the weirdest texture. I tried to not be a baby about it, but then Blaine asked for a bite and without me saying anything he mentioned the weird texture. Ehhh. This was an expensive sandwich and it was so weird tasting that we were sure it was going to kill us. I wrapped the rest of the sandwich up and threw it away. Sad. Dang Wendy's, if it weren't for your Frosty's I would swear to never visit you again.

So when we got to Sea World, FIVE hours after it had opened, we hit another traffic jam. This was the traffic jam to park. It boggled our minds. Surely we had to be the only idiots to come to Sea World this late after it opened. . . nope! We waited in line to park for about 20 minutes. When we did park it was in this overgrown field with abundant wildlife (bugs) who were very distressed that we were overtaking their environment. Could they really charge $10 to park in a pasture three miles away from the park entrance? If we hadn't borrowed our friends parking pass and parked for free there would have been heck to pay.

I hit my walking capacity once we got to the entrance. I was pretty sure we were going to have to rent a wheelchair! Inside the park was pretty fun (and HOT!). We got to see the dolphins, coral reef exhibit, and a show with cats and dogs (and a pig, porcupine and kangaroo). It was all really fun but I was anxious the whole time that Gwen was going to get heat stroke. Right before we left Blaine surprised us and bought us a tray of fish to feed the dolphins, isn't that sweet? It was kind of chaotic because there were a million other people feeding the dolphins, but Gwen loved it and I did too (except you had to lay on your tummy to feed them and my tummy is really tricky to lay on!). We have to point out the money some people forked out on fish--- the guy next to us bought each of his five kids a tray, with two spare trays for fun-- that is $35 of fish! When we have five kids I am pretty sure we will sever each fish into five little tiny pieces-- if we do anything at all!

We were only at Sea World for about three hours and then headed off for our two and half hour drive home (better than three and a half eh?). After stopping for dinner and at the grocery store we pulled into our driveway at 10:30PM. We had been gone for twelve hours, at Sea World only a fourth of those. But we had fun dang it!