Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Shows at Sea World

It has been over 15 years since I was last at Sea World. I went through periods where I was obsessed with penguins and then dolphins during that time and so there was a period where I wanted to be a marine biologist so that I could be a trainer. Obviously, that faded- most likely due to the fact that you need to be a super good swimmer- which I am not. My sister Sarah had the same dream and is still thinking of possibly pursuing it. We first hit the Shamu "Believe" Show with the unbelievably beautiful killer whales. Just look at how giant Shamu is- I love his wave to the crowd.

Underwater views of a few of the other killer whales


But most impressive were the tricks that they did with their trainers. I was lucky enough to capture this great shot.

We then hit the Cirque de La Mer show where we had front row seats for this great show that happened over the water. Interestingly enough, the only animals involved were humans. They had jumping acrobats, tricks with nets, and the bungee cords.

They also had these incredibly strong men

And a giant plastic hamster ball that a guy had to roll across the water.

We went to the Dolphin Show, which we enjoyed but the dolphins spent way too much time splashing the audience and not doing tricks. But I did capture the few that they did- I especially like the unison flips.


So, they had some audience participation and they had a family come up and the mom was sitting on the edge of the stage and she fell in!! It turns out that it was an act- the lady who fell in was a trainer. It seemed a little to precarious- in fact, my sister Sarah had said that wouldn't it be funny if the lady fell in since she was sitting so close to the edge. She definitely called it.

When then hit the sea lion show was fairly funny- it was called Sea Lions Live. They did some funny skits about tv shows and pop artists- a clever way to organize a production, and entertaining.

The final show that we saw was the Pets Rule. They had dogs, ducks, cats, birds, and even a pig run these different obstacle courses- and look at how cute the stage is. First the dog ran the course

And then the pig- look at how amazing he was going in and out of the stakes.

It was a good show- but we were kind of surprised that it was playing at Sea World when they were all primarily land animals (though there were a few ducks and a swimming dog).

1 comment:

Mel said...

Looks like you have been having fun! I had that same dream of working with dolphins, seals, whales. I even researched different universities with marine biology programs. Then I realized most marine biologists do not end up training animals.