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| 2005.05.05 - San Diego 2005-1 | ||
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I went to San Diego, to shake off work for a couple of days,
and take advantage of a business trip that the other person
in the "Shadow" pictures took earlier in the week. The hotel, The Manchester Grant Hyatt, was awesome! |
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| She sent me cookies while she was away, and I had flowers sent to her room... great minds think alike! The flowers were quite nice, and very fragrant! |
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From the Hyatt Hotel, There was an awesome view of the USS
Ronal Reagan, in for scheduled Maintenance after its first
year of operation. Docked with the Reagan was the Nimtz, the flagship of the class, in port for a refit. |
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After a check in with work, and a catch-up session on our email, it was
off to the Famous San Diego Zoo. As with most zoo's, it seems, the Peacocks were there to greet us. I think the most 'famous' guest at the zoo are the Pandas... and of course, we had to check them out... |
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I don't know about you, but I think the elephants could have
benefited from a treatment of Oil of Olay! We walked around quite a bit, and managed to see quite a few of the more popular animals that we were interested in seeing... |
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There were lots of opportunities for pictures, and some of the flowers
were just amazing! This duck family probably just is playing stowaway within the zoo... but they were cute nonetheless! |
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For me, though, I went to the zoo to see the Galapagos Turtles... some of these guys have been in the zoo sine the 1920's, and their age was estimated at about 30 when they were acquired by the park. | |
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| After the Zoo, we went to the USS Midway -- the massive carrier is retired, and how is an aircraft museum. |
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The engine control room and engine room was part of a
newly-opened section of the self-guided tour...
From the control room, the massive engines of the grand ship were monitored and managed, providing power to the rest of the ship, as well as moving it, of course. |
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It was a blast walking around the ship, and viewing the different areas
where the crew once called home...
I thought it was interesting that a popular injury on the ship was head lacerations -- and with the tightness of the ship itself, its no wonder! You definitely CANNOT be claustrophobic and be on that ship for any length of time! |
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On the hanger deck and up on the flight deck, there were several planes on display... you could even get inside a few of them... it was quite impressive! | |
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Day two saw us go to Sea World... The "Home of Shamu". We got a 'year long pass', meaning we can go back as many times as we want this year... they had us take our hand prints, so that when we came back, they'd know we didn't transfer the ticket to someone else... pretty high-tech! |
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| Our first stop was the dolphin show... Duncan and his friends wowed the crowd with antics and tricks, and, of course, he got the lower rows pretty wet! |
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The jumping really impressed us the most, I think... there
were three dolphins and two minke whales. At one point, all
5 of them were in the air... very big splashes when they
came back down! They really got some amazing height! Duncan is known as the "Highest jumping dolphin in the World"... I guess they would know... it was surprising just how far they could fling themselves out of the water, though! |
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| One thing that really surprised us was that the dolphins were playing together in a side pen with a tether ball in between sets... it was pretty amazing! |
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After the dolphin show, we went into the Southwest Airlines
SkyTower, which rises some 320 feet, providing an excellent
view of the surrounding area. Just as it was rising, we were treated to a comical view of a duck trying desperately to climb out of a pool onto the grass... why he just didn't fly up was beyond me, but he sure made a lot of effort out of it... finally, after several attempts and a whole lot of flapping... he made it. A little kid promptly chased after him, forcing him back into the water. |
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The views from up there were AMAZING!!! The bird's eye
view of the pens were pretty cool, as were the various views
of the city. You could even see our hotel from there... its the far right building on the lower left picture. |
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| Seymore's Deep Trouble show was pretty incredible... it was a skit with several incredible stunts put on by a pair of seals, and a couple of sea otters... it was a new set, and skit, and the animals weren't quite used to it yet, and the humans weren't really up to snuff either, but it was still pretty fun. |
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Some of the tricks they did were quite amazing... overall, the skit was pretty much geared for kids, but it did make for an interesting way to present the various stunts and abilities of these amazing animals! | |
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The trees in the park were blooming... making for some excellent
opportunities to enjoy the fragrance of nature! The flamingos were pretty striking, but they made you wonder why so many people want to have them in your yard... other than being pink birds with yellow eyes, and a weird beak, they're pretty non descript. |
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The star of the park, however, is Shamo, and the famous Shamo Adventure
Show. How a 3 ton whale can be so graceful is beyond me! |
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The three tricks that we liked the best were the log roll, where Shamu did a slow roll around the pool, while the trainer walked along his trunk; the surfer, where the trainer stood on his back while Shamu got up a head of steam, and the toss, where Shamu threw the trainer high into the air... | |
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The jumps were pretty incredible, too! Its amazing to
see an animal that large be so graceful. When Shamu, and Baby Shamu said goodbye, we sadly had to leave the park, and catch our plane back to Seattle... it was a GREAT two days, though! We're going back. We don't know when yet, but we'll go... that much is for SURE! |
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