The boy and I were going to go to Las Vegas with some of his coworkers for the 4th, but those plans fell through at the last minute. Everyone else backed out on Thursday. Pansies. Anyway. So the boy really wanted to go do something for the long weekend. He was at the point where he didn't care what we did, as long as we went on some kind of road trip. We didn't really want to go to Vegas, just the two of us, but it was still a possibility. Somehow it got into my head that we should go to Sea World. I think it's because on my map I-8 ends at Sea World. I suggested it on Thursday night. "Okay," said the boy. "I can't remember the last time I went to Seaworld, I think I was five."
So we got up early on Friday, packed our overnight bags, and drove to San Diego. No plans, except to go to Sea World on Saturday, no reservations, no reason. Remember how the Spring Break trip was pretty much a disaster? I expected him to make plans since it was his big idea to go to LA, he didn't make plans (I don't know why, maybe he thought activities would knock on the door of our hotel room and invite us out), so we ended up driving around doing nothing and getting stressed out? Well, neither of us had plans for this trip, but it turned out really well. I think it might have been because it was just a long weekend, not the good part of a week. Or maybe it was because neither of us had any expectations of the trip. Like, we'd both really built up the Spring Break LA trip to be a ball of fun, and then it turned out flat. This trip was like, hey, who cares? We're going to Sea World.
We overpaid for the hotel room, because every place was booked up for the 4th. We didn't know what we were going to do Friday afternoon, and my boy is still limping from his surgery. Fortunately, San Diego is a tourist town. You drive to the end of the freeway, turn, and tada! Stuff to do. On your right is Sea World, on your left is downtown San Diego, straight ahead is the ocean. You really can't miss when you go to San Diego. So, we got our crappy overpriced hotel room, and headed downtown. We ended up at Seaport Village, and stayed there until the fireworks started up over the bay. The next day we went to Sea World.
Everything at Sea World is shows. If you plan it right, you can see all the shows. I did have it planned right, but we ended up changing our plans, so we missed two things. The new Haunted Lighthouse show, and the Pets Rule show. The Haunted Lighthouse thing is a movie in 4-D (don't ask me), and the line was always way too long for us to wait in it. The Pets Rule show was just dogs and cats performing tricks, like you can see on Animal Planet every week. We ended up skipping it in favor of a little more time for dinner.
We had a great time. I hated how they called every single killer whale "Shamu," but I can get over that, eventually. At least the dolphins, sea lions, and pilot whales all had different names, even if they were just stage names. The boy limped, and we kept joking that he would need to rent a wheelchair, but it never came to that. He never admitted to what a disaster the Spring Break LA trip was, but this weekend he mentioned a few times how much better this vacation trip turned out. He even admitted that San Diego was a better destination than Vegas. He can't wait to go back.