Sea World

Yes, people, I promise this is the very last post about our California vacation.  Whew.  That's what happens when you take way too may photos - you feel like you have to share at least a "few" of them. 

Sea World Here We Come!!!!

Anyhoo, the last day of our trip was at Sea World in San Diego, California.  First thing we did was go to the Shamu Show.  I figured if we were just in the very highest soak zone seating area, we wouldn't get too terribly wet, right?   Maybe just a little spray at the most (it was a little chilly that day and I didn't want to freeze.)  Holy crap....we got completely drenched!!!!  Even several seats in the "safe" zone got it too.  Lots of little babies crying after that.  Suddenly, there was a lot of seats available in those soak rows.  People were heading for the hills!  (Well, the top part of the stadium at least.)  It was great.  Though I did make sure to stear clear of any other chances of getting wet the rest of the day.

 (Internet pic - I was too busy trying to keep my camera dry instead taking pictures.)

There is a killer whale somewhere in this huge blue expanse of a water container.

This is the picture I would have loved to have gotten with my own kids.

(Below, you can faintly see the killer whale in the background in this one.  He was resting on the other side of the pool.)

Happy, completely soaked, and ready to do it all over again.

Dolphin Show....Jed and Aubs sat in the soak zone.  The rest of us sat up higher - it took me all day just to dry up from the Shamu soaking.

Before we left for the day, the boys wanted to take a few more runs on the Atlantis ride.

We did manage to squeeze in some swimming time at the hotel pool during our last stop before home.

Who-Can-Hold-Their-Breath-The-Longest Contest.

Rigdon declared himself the winner.

 What a great trip! 

PS: We did not enjoy coming home to the freezing weather.  Although, I understand we were lucky enough to be gone during the first snowstorm of the autumn/winter season.  Nifty.

San Onofre Beach, Camp Pendleton

The last half of our California vacation was spent in the San Diego area.  We actually spent our nights at San Onofre Beach on Camp Pendleton in a "cottage."  (In reality it was actually a single wide trailer which included special compliments of a roaming little mouse and several electrical outages.  Not to mention we were right by the Amtrak train and highway so we could hear the trains and traffic all night long - awesome!)  However, our front view was this, so our stay was just fine:

All snug in our cottage.

We were always coming and going on our trip and never actually spent any real time on the beach.   So on one particular morning before we about to go to Sea World, the boys wanted to go check out the ocean since this was their first time ever experiencing it.

Those were our cottages in the background.

Staying at Camp Pendleton (which is a Marine Corps base) made Jed pretty nostalgic.  This was the very place where he went to Infantry School back when he was in the Marines as a young man.  The distinct smell in the air, the hills that he used to hike, watching the Marines train on the beach, and hearing artillery explosions in the background brought many memories flooding back for Jed.  It made him miss it all quite a bit.

The kids loved feeling the pull of the waves coming in and out.

Rigdon got hit by one particular wave that dowsed him completely with sand, tiny rocks, and salty water.   He wasn't too sure what to think about all of it.