I promise there's another beluga whale that he's looking at, although often times when we go here or to the zoo, he finds other objects in the enclosures more interesting than the animals.
In this next series of photos, it's fun to watch him as he tries to interact with the Walrus (it's also fun to zoom in on the middle picture to see the fish heads the Walrus was chomping on).
I'd never been this close to a Walrus before, and it startled me to be this close to such a massive animal with just a tiny sheet of glass separating us. Joseph, oddly enough didn't mind this close encounter--which is more than we can say about his run in with the "pet a Clydesdale" exhibit a few minutes earlier.
--Petting the Clydesdales at Sea World--
(I have no idea who these people are, but they show up when you search for images of "Clydesdale sea world")
For those of you who may be wondering why Sea World showcases a team of large horses along side killer whales and dolphins, it may be helpful to point out that Sea World's two-fold mission is to increase (1.) vistors' appreciation for aquatic life and (2.) visitors' beer consumption.
(I sort of wish American advertising laws weren't so restrictive, because part of me thinks Joseph would have really liked Joe Camel)
Joseph loved running back and forth to look into different tanks. He's becoming a lot better at climbing and getting around generally, and the lack of crowds gave him a clear view of the different exhibits.
Sea World recently built a play area for young children with, of all things, a Sesame Street theme. I guess they figured Disney already has its own theme park, Joe Camel is out (despite the great potential for tie-ins with the Budweiser horses--see above), and the old school Sea World mascots just weren't cutting it.
--Old school mascots (showed up during the above-mentioned image search)--
Even though Sea World probably spent quite a bit of money researching and marketing the name of it's Sesame Street play area, Todd never quite remembers the name of the area, and in our brief trip today he referred to it as "Elmo Land," "Elmo World," and "Elmo's Play Place." Although none of these is the correct name, this post will use these terms, and others, interchangeably.
Joseph loved his first visit to Elmo's Playland. They have a couple of Disney-esque rides and Joseph took a ride on Sea World's equivalent of the teacups. These photos were taken as we spun around at a faster rate than Joseph realized he was in for when he sat down in the brightly colored seat.
His reaction was a blend of confusion and indifference with a little bit of frustration mixed in from when we wouldn't let him stand up on the ride. He didn't cry or seem too scared. He just couldn't figure out exactly what was going on and why his parents wouldn't let him stand up.
Fortunately, Elmo Land also includes fountains for little kids to play in. We figured Joseph wouldn't be a fan of water shooting out at him unpredictably, but we were wrong. The fountains were a definite hit.
We also got this video of him in one of the fountains. At this point, he's not really smiling and laughing like he was at first, but he's still enjoying getting splashed, running away, and then looping back to repeat the process.
We also like the little kid in the orange shirt who shows up in the video. He looks scared of the water, but like a moth to a flame, he seems irresistibly drawn to it.
At the end of the day, we had one very, very drenched little boy, who couldn't wait for his next trip to Elmo World.
5 comments:
oh my goodness! That looks like so much fun! He is so cute, it's annoying.
He's so cute, it's the least annoying thing in the world! Lauren = worst aunt ever.
What else is funny is that I often go the whole post trying to figure out who is writing it, because Erin and Todd have almost the same writing style and sense of humor. It's awesome.
love the pictures. love the child. love the Y shirt. but not as much as the child.
One of the easiest ways to tell that it's Erin's writing is the presence of obscenities throughout the post.
I'd like to figure out how to move the "Posted by" line to the top of each individual post, but whenever I think about doing that I also realize that I'd like to eat a bowl of cereal even more.
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