Max in Florida Part 3: Sea World

The best part about doing these long posts in chunks is that when stuff is forgotten, you can fill in the blanks later. I completely forgot to mention on the first post that the day before we left, as we were packing, Max came down with a 102 degree fever. Sweet. Regarding the fever, at least we knew how to handle it this time and we were pretty calm about it. Regarding the trip, I was a little nervous that he'd be a total crankfest on the plane. I think we managed to bat it down to about 99.5 before getting on the plane and he regulated his temperature by the time Day 2 got underway. Side note: this time, Holly opted to attack the fever with a popsicle. I was told to fetch one and grabbed the first thing I laid hands on in the freezer. It turned out to be blue and ended up making Max's tongue, gums, lips and general mouth area pretty blue. We'll stick to yellow or orange in the future.


In any case, day 4 was the one day we chose to take in some theme park action. We decided against the Disney stuff as neither of the babies would have any idea what was going on, but everyone likes animals in captivity (Max is pretty interested in animals too) so off we went to Sea World. It was a super hot day and a busy one too (apparently families go to the Disney Parks earlier in the week and hit Sea World on Thursdays...). We started with a show called "Believe" at Shamu Stadium (like Dolphin Stadium, but cooler for the ladies). A lot of the storyline behind the show was pretty cheesy for the adults, but the stunts were pretty cool. Max was at least looking in the right general direction to see stuff for about 20% of the show, but he didn't run up to me after the show begging to be a whale trainer so I know he didn't actually SEE it.

We split up to tackle the Arctic exhibit and the Kraken roller coaster in two crews. I monitored the pair of snoozing babies in their strollers until everyone caught up. Next was the highlight of the day for the adults: the Anheuser-Busch hospitality building. Given that they own Sea World, they have splattered their name all over video tributes to American Heroes (finding WMDs around the world for you!) and things like this hospitality building with free beer. About 20 international varieties to choose from and an endless supply of air-conditioning. Bring in a dolphin to feed and even the kids will love this building. Spirits replenished, we headed out to feed sharks, see the inside of a massive shark aquarium via a movator, see an otter/sea lion/walrus show, feed dolphins and pet stingrays. By the time we left, we had all eaten, petted, drunk, napped, walked or enjoyed ourselves as much as possible, which made for a good day.












We went back to the hotel to meet up with my fourth and final co-worker joining us (he and his wife and two daughters, one 2 years old and one three weeks younger than Max), who had driven down from Ottawa over the course of the previous week. Once all together, the 11 of us went out to Friendly's, a Perkins-like restaurant which emphasizes its ice cream offerings. After reasonably-sized $7 meals, we all pitched in to buy our friend G the Ultimate Crowd Pleaser for his birthday dessert - a 12-scoop sundae topped with about an inch of a mix of 7 different toppings, 6 Reese's cups and 12 maraschino cherries. Feast your eyes on this bad-boy. We're talking about the sundae.



***THIS JUST IN - Max has successfully climbed our staircase for the first time. On his first three attempts, he averaged 6 or 7 stairs. This time, with one hand wrapped around a big ball of tissue paper, he conquered all 16. Now back to your regularly scheduled program***

After regretting our newfound belly aches, we returned to the hotel for some casual Scrabble and hanging out with our new vacation mates. Perhaps it was the ice cream which knocked Holly and I out, but it was the first night Max chose to sleep through the night. This was convenient timing, given that the first few nights, Holly would retire to the empty room we had booked for those arriving on Thursday when she couldn't get a good enough sleep in our room. Here's one last picture:



P.S. From our west-facing hotel room window, we had a nightly view of the Universal Studios fireworks extravaganza. On my birthday, I pretended it was just for me :)