The Lane's next BIG trip: Day 22. San Diego (SeaWorld). Friday 10th January

Christine had been looking forward to today's excursion to SeaWorld for a very long time. Not because she would see Seals, or Dolphins, or Sharks, or a Polar Bear or even to have another chance to scream on a roller coaster. The real reason she got up ~~early~~ on Friday 10th of January 2014 was to see Killer Whales up close. And we got to see them real close. We arrived as the gates opened and Christine made a beeline for the Killer Whale exhibit (In fact we haven't seen her move so fast all holiday). Of course, visitor numbers to the park were down due to the time of year, so we initially had all the underwater viewing area to ourselves to see 5 of the 10 Killer Whales at San Diego SeaWorld. After a while we thought we'd better have a look around the rest of the park and spent the next couple of hours seeing Dolphins, Beluga whales, Flamingos, Otters, sharks, fish, a Walrus, a Polar Bear and feeding seals. We also experienced getting wet on the Rapids River ride. Lunch was very special as we had booked 'Lunch with the Killer Whales''. For an extra charge (booked a few days before) we had a full buffet lunch, pool side. 5 of the Killer Whales, with the help of their trainers, put on a private show for us and a few other tables. The whales performed 'behaviours' when directed to and were rewarded with bucket loads of fish. What made it even more special was, when they were left to swim around as they pleased they still came up real close to where we were seated. After lunch we watched the main Killer Whale show, the Dolphin show, looked at other ~~far less interestin~~g animals, went up the 122 m Sky tower, for some magnificent views of San Diego and Andrew and Jacob went on a roller coaster and both got wet again. With 20 mins left before closing at 5, we went back to say goodbye to the Killer Whales and bought some souvenirs as we exited the park. It was another fantastic day.