SeaWorld

Two words:  SeaWorld rocks.  Put me in the middle of manta rays, Moray eels, sharks, dolphins and killer whales and I am a happy camper - err, make that scuba diver.  Too bad you can't dive at SW - I would so be into it.  But, I digress...

We got there at about 10 and made it in by 10:30-ish (took a while - lines were slow).  First saw the manta exhibit and the Manta roller coaster.  Decided to put the ride off til later.  Over the course of the day we went to the Killer whale show, the Dolphin show, walked through the shark tunnel, saw the dolphin nursery and "traveled" to the arctic to see polar bears.  Oh, and can't forget the puffins, murres (a penguin relative like the puffin) and the fabulously stinky penguins themselves.

By three o'clock I was starting to wilt in the 94 degree temp (not complaining - just sayin'...), but we stayed to watch the dolphin show (awesome!), then, since the line was only 10 minutes long, we decided to end the day with a spin on the Manta (see it here).  It's roller coaster that you ride laying flat on your stomach.  The link has a point of view video if you want to get a feel for it :-)

After that we staggered off the coaster and made our way back to the parking lot and back to the condo.  Oh yeah, stopped for ice cream before heading up to our room.  It was a good day - but having fun sure is exhausting! :-)

Enjoy a few pics and videos.  TTFN

Dolphin!

The Posing Seal

Okay, so I can't get the video to post.  I will try again later.

Adventures with Harry

It's been several event filled months since I last posted.  Since coming home from Thailand last August, I have completed two semesters at the U, gotten accepted to the nursing program there (which starts in a week), moved out of our house in South Jordan to a condo in Draper, Derrick's company got purchased and with that his responsibilities have changed (mostly for the better), we have a new granddaughter and...well you get the idea.  It's been busy.  So, at the moment, we are in Orlando getting a little, much needed R & R before I start school again on Thursday.

We decided to head to Orlando because we had a time share week to use before July and some frequent flier points.  We got here Thursday night and spent Friday just getting the lay of the land and deciding what we wanted to do.  The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was very high on our list, so that is where we headed first once we arrived at Universal Studios.  This is the first thing we saw as we walked toward it:

Pretty cool, huh.  The Hogwarts Castle replica is much bigger than we expected and really stands out from many spots in the park.

Right after getting there we saw the Hogwarts Choir.  Check this out:

I totally love the frogs.

I have more pics and videos and we are going back either Monday or Tuesday.  We are also going to Sea World (I am very excited about that!).  

So I will stop for now and wish you all a Happy Mother's Day.

Happy Traveling!