For the last two years we have had season passes to Sea World. I can't even tell you how many times we've been over the last two years, but last week we had the visit of a lifetime. Our passes expired on July 3rd, so on the 2nd Chris and I left Emma at home with Stephanie (oh, have I mentioned that Chris's little sister lives with us right now?) so we could go ride some rides and not have to worry about making it home for naps.
After we parked we were heading to the gates to enter the park when these two ladies in super bright costumes walked up to us and shouted "SURPRISE!" We were so confused. Then they explained that this year Sea World is celebrating their 50th year and that they are part of a Surprise Team that randomly picks park guests to surprise. They handed us a card that said what our surprise was. We were assuming it would be something like a free stuffed animal, or a meal or something like that. We were SHOCKED when it said "Penguin Interaction Tour". Chris and I got to enter the penguin exhibit and actually go interact with penguins!
We had been planning on spending the whole day in water-at the water park and doing the rides that get you wet in the main park, so we didn't have a camera or our cell phones with us. When we got to the meeting place for the interaction we met the three other people who were doing the interaction with us. One was a mom with her son on his 7th birthday (you have to be 7 to do the interaction) and the other was a girl probably about 20 who was doing this as a birthday gift to herself. Since they all knew they were doing the interaction before they got to the park they brought their phones with them to take a ton of pictures. The following pictures were ones that I got Jamie (the 20 year old) to text to me. We also ended up getting the pictures that a photographer took (oh yeah, a photographer was in there with us too) but don't have those yet.
First we spent about 15-20 minutes learning about the different species of penguins that Sea World has. Then we got changed and headed into the habitat. We got to spend about 30 minutes with the penguins. It was AMAZING.
They took photos of everyone sitting on this rock holding a penguin. Hopefully we'll have better pictures of this once we get the pro pictures back.
Cute penguins LOVED the interaction. They would come up to you and start whining if you didn't pet them. Some of them were super cuddly.
I'm holding Oswald and Chris was holding Jenny. So amazing.
This Chinstrap Penguin was just adorable! These guys were all so cute.
This is the youngest penguin chick they have. When penguins are born they have these down feathers for about a year. This one hadn't started shedding his baby feathers yet. He was probably the most cuddly penguin out there. He can't swim yet so he's in a little pen with the two other baby penguins who aren't water-ready yet. We got to go in the pen with him and as soon as we didn't he cam up to us and just stood there for us to snuggle.
After our time with the penguins was up we headed to the water park and went down a ton of water slides and tube rides. It was a blast to do all these things that we can't do with Emma until she's older/taller. This was definitely our most memorable trip to the park and we can't wait to head back there once we renew our passes in November.
