{field trip to sea world}

Yesterday I braved & battled the good old Texas heat we've been having. Highs are about 97, humidity, well.. you can cut through it. It's pretty humid, it feels.

Katie's class went to Sea World yesterday, and I followed. Apparently, Sea World opens up just for the schools only on certain days. Yesterday one of the days. It was PACKED! Literally. Katie's teacher paired me up with her BFF's mom: Melissa. What a gal! I really like her! Very sad they're moving this summer to Georgia. Seems like all the close friends Katie makes moves away! (or we move away!). Anyways... we had to count over & over all morning & afternoon: "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8" We had EIGHT 5th graders we had to be accountable for.

Say "CHEESE!" The dolphin appears to be smiling at me.

I bring out smiles in people (well, mammals) apparently!

We started off at the Dolphin Cove. This is my favorite place to be, other than Shamu. You can pay an "are you kidding me?" price of $5 for 4 little fish to feed the dolphins. Next time I might smuggle some sardines in a can... wonder if I can get away w/ that? If you are lucky to have a dolphin come up to you withOUT fish, then you are one lucky kid! I gave Katie the use of my camera, and when I came home I found about 100 pictures of dolphins. ::rolling eyes:: There were some up close & fuzzy, some with just teeth, some with a hand covering the dolphin (b/c she's trying to take a picture AND pet the dolphin... she's in training to multi-task like all other women). There was one old dolphin that I was sure was blind. When we went back to the Dolphin Cove after the Shark area, hardly anybody was there. One dolphin was about 2 feet away from me, w/ his mouth open and no one there to put anything in it. His eyes were also closed... when I asked the guy over this whole field trip thing if the dolphin was blind, I got this weird look from him. "yeah.. no, he's not blind". Whatever.... He swims with his eyes shut, and he's asking for handouts when no one is THERE!

One of Katie's MANY dolphin pics... I've got to figure out what to do w/ all these dolphin pics

Katie (in blue) is next to her BFF Vanessa (in pink)...

reaching out and saying "pretty pretty please come see me!"

After the Dolphin Cove, we headed to the Aquarium & the Shark Reef Tank. I think one of thes harks attacked another b/c they dropped a net down to scoop up a shark... and I MISSED IT! I saw them drop it, waiting for something, but I didn't catch the excitement. Darn it.... I was too busy watching 5th graders and counting to 8 to make sure we didn't lose any.

Then we started to head for the Beluga Whales. However, we passed the gift shop. So we stopped in. THIRTY minutes later, we're done. UGH! Was it the girls who held us up? No, it was the BOYS! Two minutes after we told them we're leaving, they get in line, which was 15 minutes long. ::smack:: Finally we head to get our lunch, but are told we had to walk a mile around the park instead of taking a short detour. GRR!

They only gave us two shows to see (and all schools are expected to be there at the same time!), and they were more of the "this is a killer whale", and "this is a blow hole" type of shows. Excuse me while I yawn for a second. There was no "heart stirring" & "make you tear up" show with the beautiful music playing in the background. I feel cheated!

Following our "this is a killer whale" show, we went to a seal show. We had to walk another mile BACK to where we were... and of course, all 8 kids stood in line for a churro, drink, ice cream bar at the only snack bar open in the entire park. Ugh! So we were late to the seal show. After this show was done, it was time to GO!

So glad it's done & over with. Now I've got to wait for the Field Day, Talent Show practice, Talent Show... among other fun 5th grade activities Katie will be having.