The Rowes in the Rose City: Seaworld, San Diego, Again

Avery & I sneaked off at the beginning of October for a mother-daughter get-away in southern California. We met up with friends Kim, Wil, & Jamie in Orange County, then went to Seaworld the next day. When we were visiting in February we found out that the day passes to Seaworld were good for the whole year, so we decided to take advantage of that one more time. And lord knows, Avery can never get enough of "Free Willy" (her name for any killer whale with a bent dorsal fin, just like Keiko from the movie).

Here's Avery at John Wayne Airport, pretending to be the Statue of Liberty -- one of her favorite things these days thanks to her Viewmaster

Instead of a bath on Wednesday night we decided to have a dip in Kim & Wil's pool. It was lovely!

Jamie enjoys a dip, too

Leslie & Avery (Wil skipped the dip in the pool & was on camera detail)

Kim got a swim, too

Showin' the love -- Avery & Jamie are always fast friends

Off to Seaworld, starting with the main attraction: Free Willy -- as Avery calls them (all), although she does understand that at Seaworld they prefer to call them all Shamu

Avery is convinced that all trainers are "Jesse" from the movie "Free Willy"

Ready, get set,

GO!

"Willy"

Seaworld is owned by Anheuser-Busch, so of course they have Clydesdales

Petting the sting rays -- they were very friendly & begging for attention. Their stingers are trimmed with fingernail clippers as they grow, so they are safe to pet

YIKES -- the sharks were scary, but we were safe on the other side of the glass

Aren't seals the cutest?

Feed me, feed me, they begged

Recently Seaworld added a Seasame Street area, complete with kiddy rides. It's a little sad to see it go so "commercial," as the kids got sucked into the area a couple of times and we had to drag them out to go see animals (which they loved once they were out of Elmo's grasp)

Avery would not go near Burt & Ernie, so I tried to go pose with them to draw her up on stage for a picture. No Way was her response!

But, she always has a hug for Elmo!

They could tell I was pregnant, so they wouldn't let me on the ride, and they wouldn't let Jamie on without a parent (even though both were under the 48-inch limit, but Jamie was about 1 inch shorter than Avery. . . .). So, Avery had to fly her Elmo fish by herself!