As part of a great deal from the IBM Country Club, Katie and I bought tickets to SeaWorld in San Antonio on Saturday. The whole bundle included parking, two entry tickets, and two meal tickets. This is known as IBM Family Day. We left Austin about 8 AM and arrived at about 10:30 AM. The longest line of the day was just to get into the parking lot. Here we are at the beginning of our day together.
Although thousands of IBMers and their families would be there the adventure park was open to the public. However, this was a tax free weekend in Texas so the attendance would be down because most people would be at stores buying clothes, and supplies for the upcoming school season. We decided to not carry a backpack and to keep it light. We planned to see the shows and just take it easy. So we headed to the Sea Lion show first which was cute. Afterwards we headed around the lake towards the roller coasters and I was teasing Katie about going on some of the roller coasters (the park has two). She was saying no, no, no. I didn’t know how they would affect me since the onset of my balance problems and my operation. I doubted that I’d be able to handle them.
However as we passed the Steel Eel jokingly I angled her in and although she objected at first she let me guide her in. We found there were NO LINES and soon we were on the ride in the last car. Well this coaster has a massive up and then lots of ups and downs like the undulations of an eel. Katie did not like going up the big hill and shut her eyes. The anticipation of the drop bothered her and she had a death grip on the handrail throughout, however afterwards she and I were both giddy with the adrenaline. We staggered out, and continued around the lake. She and I had survived.
Next we needed something more sedate so we waited for 45 minutes for the Texas Spash Down log plume. The weather was getting hotter, but overall it was mostly cloudy and the day was cooler than a typical mid-August day – it was somewhere in the 80s. Expecting to get wet and therefore cooler, the ride was disappointing and we had only gotten a few sprinkles on us.
As we walked by the Great White coaster. I remembered the previous time Katie and I had been to SeaWorld years ago (probably over 10 years ago) where my head was knocked around quite a bit. And I didn’t want that to happen again. However, the sign out front said 0-5 minutes wait. So on the spur of the moment we went in. Although Katie was pushing to sit in the back I forced her in the second row up front. On this ride you sit in a seat with your legs hanging free. Also this one was not so high and it looped over and over. Afterwards I felt that this was the best ride, but if there is ever a next time I want to be in the front row. After that we were done with the rides. So off we went to find a bathroom and lunch. After another line we got some tortilla wraps which we ate while walking, because we wanted to get to the Shamu show next. We were now getting hot. We got there in plenty of time and sat on the third row – these seat were labeled “Splash Zone”. Having been to SeaWorld before we knew what we were doing. We wanted to cool down, or should I say we wanted to be cooled down. The show as great and near the end our section was instructed to make hand signals so the massive killer whales would splash us. Well not much happened. We got a few sprinkles. We thought that was it, but the trainers realized that the whales hadn’t done what they asked them to do, so they sent them back to do it right – after this we were soaking wet with 52 degree water. Water was dripping from my hat, my shirt, and my shoes – I was totally wet, but hey I was cooler now. After the show we headed over to the Ski show, and still wet we again sat in the “Splash Zone”, but the personal watercraft never got close to the power of those killer whales to drench us. We were now getting tired so we went to several of the aquariums and saw penguins, sharks, and dolphins. Somewhere in there we went to a trained animal show that was cute and included trained dogs, cats (yes, really they had trained cats), a porcupine, and a kangaroo – amazing. By that time we both had had it, so we got a small bite to eat, and then headed home. We did all that we wanted to do at a pace that was not frantic. Overall Katie and I had a wonderful day at SeaWorld.