My Family Trip To Seaworld

By Heather Olguin

 My family and I take a vacation every two years.  Usually our whole family goes on vacation, but this year it was just my family and my brother-in-law’s family.  This year we decided to take the kids to California, because the past two vacations we took, we went to Puerto Penasco, Mexico.  Mexico is always a fun place to go for a family vacation, but we wanted to go somewhere different this year.  Leaving for California was a little difficult, because I had to go to Lubbock, Tx for my cousin’s wedding on Wednesday, three days before we were suppose to leave.  However, my husband picked me up in Albuquerque on Sunday, June 15, 2008, which was Father’s Day, and we began the first day of our great adventure.  On the way we met up with my husband’s brother and his family, so that we could travel together.  We always feel safer traveling in groups.  I have several great memories from our trip to California; however, the memories I have of the day we spent at Seaworld are a few of my favorites   

We arrived in San Diego at two o-clock in the morning and we were all very tired.  We had just spent twelve long hours on the road in a vehicle that was jammed packed full of people and luggage.  I was relieved that we were able find our hotel fairly easy, so we checked in and drove to the other side of the hotel where we found our room.  When I got out of our Durango I noticed the palm trees right away, and I remember thinking, “These trees are so beautiful out here!”  Some were really tall and had perfect umbrella shaped branches, some were short with perfect umbrella shaped branches, and some were uneven and lopsided.  When we got to our room, which was on the second floor, we threw on our pajamas and went straight to bed.  I don’t think we even brushed our teeth, and I always make sure we all brush our teeth before we go to bed.  The next morning we got up early, because we wanted to eat a good breakfast before we went to Seaworld.  We knew we had a long day ahead of us and we needed all the energy we could get to survive.

When we pulled into the parking lot at Seaworld, I was so excited.   In fact I don’t know who was more excited, my kids or myself.  I had not been to Seaworld since I was four years old, so it was a big deal for me to be here again.  The first thing we did when we walked inside was rent a locker so we did not have to carry everything around.  After we put our things into a locker we walked further inside, and I saw people everywhere.  As I look around I saw several shops with souvenirs everywhere!  My husband saw my face light up and he said, “Oh no!  We’ll shop later!  Let’s look around first!”  My son, Jacob, kept telling me, “Look mom it’s Nemo!”  “Look mom a whale!”  I told him, “Don’t worry son we’ll go shopping before we leave.”

The first thing we all wanted to do was watch the Shamu Show, so we went to see what time it was going to start.  We arrived right as the whales were getting ready for their first show of the day.  We saw them swimming in their tank, around and around, waiting to put on their big performance.  I had never seen the Shamu show before, so I was really excited.  As we walked in, I saw that the stadium was almost packed.  We decided to sit up towards the top hoping to get some good pictures.  I sat down and waited anxiously, just like a little kid, for the show to begin.  All of a sudden I saw the whales come out to make their first appearance, and they jumped up out of the water and made a big SPLASH!  The people on the first four rows got soaked, and I remember thinking, “Man I’m glad I didn’t sit down there!”  As the show went on the beautiful killer whales did tricks, jumped out of the water, splashed water on the people in the audience, and swam around with the trainers on their backs.  I thought to myself, “This would be a great job, I would love to come to work everyday!”  At the end of the show the two whales jumped out of the water onto a huge stage with their bodies arched as if to say, “TaDa!”  I was disappointed when the show was over, but I remembered that I still had a lot to see. 

That day we saw all kinds of different fish and other animals of the sea.  I saw the dolphin show, the seal and otter show, sea turtles, numerous kinds of little fish, big fish, polar bears, humpback whales, beluga whales, sharks, seals, and much more.  The shark tank was really cool.  I walked into a cave like place where there were several different types of sharks big and small.  Just when I thought I had reached the end of the shark tanks, I walked into a tunnel and it was underwater!  I looked up and saw huge sharks swimming above my head!  At first it seemed kind of creepy then I looked at my kids and said, “This is awesome!”  Jacob kept grabbing my face, with both of his little hands, telling me, “Look mama, Sharks!”  I got the best picture of a shark swimming right over my head.  The shark exhibit was really neat, but the Shamu Show was my favorite.

At the end of the day we were getting ready to head to the front entrance, and that’s when we saw a huge water ride.  Everyone was so excited they kept telling me, “Come on lets ride it!”  There was no way I was going to ride the big roller coaster, because it was getting dark, and I did not want to get wet.  However, my niece and daughter talked me into riding it anyway.  I was a little nervous, because I just knew I was going to get soaked.  My niece kept telling me that she didn’t get that wet when she rode it the first time, which she did look pretty dry.  I figured it couldn’t be that bad, so I climbed into my seat and waited anxiously for everyone to climb into their seats. 

As soon as everyone was seated and locked in we started to move slowly, and then, at the speed of lightning, there I went around windy corners climbing higher and higher to the top.  I remember keeping my eyes closed part of the time, knowing that at some point I was probably going to get wet; however, I was not prepared for how I was going to get wet.  When I felt the boat slow down, I opened my eyes and saw that I was headed up a huge incline.  I knew, right then, that I was going to drop, very fast, into the water on the other side.  I looked at my daughter and said, “Oh Great!”  The boat reached the top, I looked straight ahead waved to my husband and my son, and then down I went into the water, SPLASH!   Now I was soaked and cold; therefore, I was ready to go back to our room and get into some dry clothes.  As we were leaving I looked at my family and said, “What a great day!”