Whale of a Tale!!

I posted a long, long, long time ago that we were going to take Boogie to Disney for her 4th birthday.  Jon was less then excited, but seeing how thrilled Boogie was, agreed to go.  I planned and planned and planned and booked us into the Contemporary, but well that didn't work out. Instead we booked a Cabin at Fort Wilderness and it turned out to be perfect.  If you have a family and you want to spread out and have some room I highly recommend staying at the cabins.  There is plenty of "Disney" there but it is also quiet and removed, a perfect blend.  Anyway I am getting way ahead of myself.

We were very, very busy leading up to our trip.  With everything going on, working and being pregnant, by the time Tuesday rolled around we were all pretty exhausted.  Murphy's law stepped in to ensure that we didn't leave Atlanta at our planned 2pm time, but instead we hit the road smack in the middle of rush hour at 5:30pm.  YAY!!!! We arrived in Florida at my lovely parents house a little bedraggled and exhausted at 12:30am. This of course meant that we did not get up early the next morning and start our adventure with the sun, this meant that we left picturesque Crystal River, Florida at 11am.  Oh well, we were off and the car was loaded down with stuff not to mention a very excited almost 4 year old.

Our first stop.....to see this guy.........

Boogie is kneeling on the ground by the trainer.

We walked through the gates at Sea World and all Boogie wanted to do was play in the kids water area and ride rides.  This was her trip so we were off....



She rode her first ride with Jon of course but she and I got to ride the roller coaster together for the first time.  She rode it three more times with Jon, and I have to say its not a slouchy little coaster.  To anyone that says but you can't ride a roller coaster your pregnant, I say well I went White Water rafting down the Ocoee pregnant with PJ and I am sure this roller coaster was safer then class 4 rapids. :D

Next was the Flying Fiddler, this was definitely a favorite and since there was hardly anyone in the park we rode this ride about 10 times.  Seriously if no one walked up to get on, the attendant just told us to stay on for another ride.  It was definitely a favorite of the day.

PJ of course is to small for any of these rides, but we made sure to make her stroller trip a little interesting.  Oh and if your wondering I did not mean to color coordinate the stroller, diaper bag and our outfits, it just worked out that way. PJ did get a ride on the carousel and she did great.  Held on like a trooper, and I have pictures to prove it but of course they are not down loaded yet.

Anyway once we finally got Boogie out of the play area I tried to get a nice family picture by the cute pumpkin fish....

Ummmmmmmmm

Yeah you can see how well that worked....*Sigh* well there was still Disney right?

Since we got a late start it was getting late in the day and we had reservations for 5:30 at T-Rex in Downtown Disney.  Definitely a must do if you have a kid that loves dinosaurs, although be for warned it is a bit loud and there is a giant meteor crash about every 15 minutes.  Still if you have a chance I say it is a unique experience.

Mom was worried that we were going to get stuck in Orlando rush hour and miss our reservation so we headed back towards the entrance.  We saw no animals, we saw no shows, nothing that is essentially Sea World.  This was Boogies trip so we just rode rides and let Boogie play in the water, that's all she wanted to do.  However on our way out we were in for a treat.

I never realized that there was a viewing tank at the back of Shamu stadium where you can watch the Orca's, but there is, and it is really cool.  I wanted to swing by because one of the whales was in the tank and noticed that a trainer was in front of us carrying a pail.  Well of course I assumed it was fish and that we might get to see him feed the whale or something, but it turned out to just be water.  However he had a plan and Boogie got involved and it was the coolest thing ever....

The trainer had Boogie help him wet the paper and stick it to the glass on the tank.  A couple of other kids came in and he ask them to join him too.

He explained that this was a free tank for the Orca's and that they could be engaged to interact with the people behind the glass if they wanted too.  He encouraged us to try to get the whales attention while he and the kids finished putting the paper on the glass.

Once that was finished he called the Orca with his whistle and the kids got to play peek a boo around the paper with a 12,000lb male Orca.  It was amazing and so much fun to watch the kids get so excited.

Whenever anyone would peek through the hole that the trainer made he would stick his tongue out at them.  Charlotte particularly liked this little trick and would stick her tongue back out at him.

PJ however was not so sure about playing with a 12,000lb whale and just watched skeptically from her stroller.

All to soon, the fun was over, and although the whale stuck around for a while we had to head out.

It was the absolute perfect ending to our day at Sea World and one that I know I will never forget.  However our day was far from over, we still had to beat horrible rush hour traffic and make it all the way over to Downtown Disney in time for our reservation.  I hope we could get there in the hour and a half that we had till dinner!!!!

Let me just preface the next post which will finish up day one and say mom should never be in charge of how long it takes to get from one place to another.

I'll try to post again tomorrow and finish up our first day for everyone, but suffice to say we were definitely off to a great start.