While potentially fun, Sea World was not happening for us. It was a full on rainy day.

We managed to see a couple of shows and ride a couple of rides. But mostly we slogged through puddles to get to the far away Shamu stadium and finally get seated to hear that the show was canceled due to inclement weather.

The rain is different in Florida. This is my first trip to this state and I’m learning a lot. While it is generally transient and certainly wet like ours, it comes with other problems, lightening and thunder. We learned on the first day of our trip that if it is just raining the guests are welcome to stay and have as much fun as they like, as long as they don’t mind getting wet.

When the lightening and thunder arrive and are less than ten miles from the area they shut down all rides (and animal shows as we learned yesterday.) If the lightening is really close, they urge everybody to find an enclosed area to safely wait for the inclement weather to pass.

That’s what we did for most of our Sea World day…..wait. But since we had so much fun on all the days preceding this one, it didn’t seem to bother us too much. The girls fussed a bit more, as did my husband and I. But from the scenes we witnessed between other traveling families over seemingly minute details, we feel quite blessed that none of us choose the drama and trauma that often color the average family vacation.

We saw two great shows and rode two thrilling rides. The helicopter ride was totally fun. It is another one of those simulated experiences. This time we went through the arctic braving a blizzard, an avalanche and diving into the icy waters to view the sea life.

Sea World was my request for our park agenda on this trip. I love the shows. I love the dolphins and whales and sea lions and all the tricks that they do. I love to watch the trainers and imagine how exciting their lives must be and muse at the relationships they must have with these animals. I like to think they are all enjoying themselves as much as we are.

As with everything, they have certainly stepped up the entertainment since the last time I visited the Sea World in Texas almost ten years ago.

The dolphin show used to involve a trainer who displayed what the dolphin can do, taught a little bit about the animal and made some jokes to keep us entertained. Now it’s like a mini Broadway production. The performers don’t talk, but move to a carefully scripted score, delighting the audience with jumps and dives and spins and splashes. The trainers have cool wetsuits and the divers and trapeze artists are costumed like colorful birds (not my favorite.)

It was spectacular to say the least. I think Cirque De Soleil has set the bar high for any acrobatic show around, even for dolphins.

So even though we missed Shamu, we did not leave feeling deprived. It was not a bad finale to our amusement park adventure. We got back a bit earlier, enjoyed a good night sleep and had one day left to unwind, relax and get ready for the next part of our trip.

Our family is going its separate ways and the rest of the summer will begin.

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