Cali Adventures: Part 1

Lil-mil +2 made the long journey from Philly to San Diego, where life is a vacation, just to visit us...and to play a little tourist. After unfortunate weather delays, they finally arrived safe and sound and we headed off to Sea World, not so bright and early the next morning. Little cuz BigT and nephew lil-mil were in their own little world as they attempted to breach the obviously child-proof fence at this family friendly theme park, with minimal effort, to take a swim. BigT almost made it to the wide open waters, but luckily Rose swooped in to the rescue not a moment too soon.

We visited Shamoo and friends, but must admit, while the Killer whales were neat, they didn't compare in their skill and agility to that of the dolphins. Unfortunately, we were so enthralled with the unbelievably high jumping and incredible splash radius of the dolphins, that we didn't think to document. Our choice of seating was vast, but we opted to heed the glaring signs marking the "soak zone", where odds of getting wet are unquestionable, and stay dry. We were also admittedly entertained by the surprisingly shocked individuals sitting in the "soak zone" as they screamed and unsuccessfully attempted to run or jump to avoid the torrents of water.

Lil-mil wasn't as entertained by the giant marine life as the rest of us, he was much more interested in the multiple birds circling menacingly over head. I wish we had caught it on video, but to paint an inferior picture, he pointed at the birds in the sky and said, "wow", repeatedly. Auntie Rose of course took this as an opportunity for language development and bombarded lil-mil with "bird" along with its sign, and am pleased to report that by the end of the long weekend, he was signing "bird" and "more" with increasing accuracy and of course, his little fingers were oh so cute. Here he is looking a little dazed with the rents, milE and Lapple.


The big boys took an adventurous helicopter ride to the wild Arctic, while milE and Rose stuck with lil-mil on the "motion free" option. We played around in the Polar bear caves, thank goodness all we saw of the Polar bears were their paw prints! Lil-mil was tough and bore the cold with no problem.

Our favorite animal in the arctic was the Beluga whale. Beluga whales are white to blend in with the snow, they have no dorsal fin, they have un-fused neck vertebrae to allow them to shake their heads in frustration when they can't find food, they are the only animal of their kind that can swim backwards, which gives them an advantage against their prime predator, the Polar bear, and their voice scares lil-mil. Who knew? Good thing we went to Sea World.

Here we are with lil-mil in the Arctic base station research lab. He really likes to hang onto Uncle Hoss, he is like a super protector. Who wouldn't feel safe with a superman like that by their side? He even gets a little curl of hair in the front, but tries to hide that, it's kind of a dead give away as to his true identity.


Lil-mil wasn't into petting the Bat-rays, but he had no problem letting Auntie Rose live vicariously through him to pet the starfish. See how I do a little hand-over-hand to "help" him pet the starfish? I actually did end up touching the starfish, come on, I am from Wyo, some opportunities you just can't pass up! However, one look at the million little suction cups on their underside, and their circular claw-like mouths, and it was all lil-mil for holding the little suckers. What a brave kiddo, I think the starfish started feeding on his hand! Good thing Super Uncle Hoss was there to pull it off!