Socal Stuff

Sea World: A First-Class Destination for the Entire Family

Kids in Southern California are blessed with an abundance of family attractions and activities. It's a pretty short drive from our San Fernando Valley home to Disneyland, California Adventure, LegoLand, Magic Mountain, Hurricane Harbor and more. My daughter and I love it.

I wish I could say the same for my husband. He HATES amusement parks, with a passion. Getting him to agree to a Disneyland trip is like pulling hair (and if you've seen my husband, you know he doesn't have a lot of hair to spare).

Thank goodness for Sea World. The San Diego marine park is one of the few places in SoCal that offers something for everyone in our family: Animal exhibits, entertainment and rides -- with the added attraction of comfortable ocean breezes.

I've been enjoying the park since right after it opened in 1964. My husband and I visited before we were married, and then again on our honeymoon. It continued to be a favorite destination after our daughter was born and we discovered that it contains one of the best children's play areas I've ever seen.

So I was delighted to receive an invitation to the grand opening of the play area's newest incarnation, as the Sesame Street Bay of Play. It has all the wild and wonderful features we enjoyed when Megan was a toddler -- with the addition of three gentle rides and Sesame Street characters. And now that our daughter is in her "terrible tweens," I am nostalgic for those sweet days when I could rest my feet after a long day of shows and animals, and sit on a shady bench while husband and child climbed nets as high as the sky.

Here's some video I took of the Bay of Play's unveiling:

And here's Megan's kid's eye view of the Bay of Play:

Don't you love the way she protests that she's only there because her mom is making her... and then proceeds to have fun despite herself?

At least, she was not too cool for the park's other attractions, which include amazing animal shows and opportunities to get up close and personal with sharks, whales, dolphins, penguins and seals.

The Memorial Day crowds (combined with the fact that we got up at 5:00 a.m. to drive to San Diego) prevented us from seeing EVERYTHING there was to see at Sea World, but we managed to sample quite a bit of the park (including two times on the Journey to Atlantis ride). Want to see how we spent the rest of our day?

Our Day at Sea World from Donna Schwartz Mills on Vimeo.

Some day, we would love to do the Breakfast with Shamu or the Dolphin Encounter. Sea World also offers an amazing camp program where your kid can spend a week interacting with the marine biologists and trainers who work there.

Wanna know how we spent the rest of our time in San Diego? Visit me at my main blog, SoCal Mom.

Endless Ocean

The folks who designed the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach took its name to heart:

The exhibits are divided into geographic habitats of the Pacific Ocean - Southern California/Baja, The Tropical Pacific and the Pacific Northwest. You walk through simulated undersea caverns to view the various fish in their simulated habitats.

Audio tour information is available via cell phone (this is the first time I've seen this feature): a toll free number is posted along with the code you enter to access the information. The only charge is for your carrier's minutes. The only downside we saw for this system was that in most parts of the Aquarium, we were unable to get a signal from our carrier (T-Mobile). Other than that, it's an intriguing idea, and one I think more museums will be adopting.

A good portion of the Aquarium's exhibits are outdoors: There is a water play area that your young children will love, touch tanks, a shark exhibit and pinniped show (you know: sea lions and seals).

The marine life represented at the Aquarium is not limited to fish and mammals. There is also a large outdoor aviary filled with lorakeets and other colorful birds, which fly freely through it (and often perch on your shoulder), and that's actually one of my favorite parts of the facility. Unfortunately, it was closed for renovation on Saturday, so we didn't get a chance to feed the birds.

The Aquarium of the Pacific has a pretty good cafe (where they serve Starbucks coffee) and large gift shops with a terrific selection of goodies for all ages in a variety of price points.

It's funny -- we used to hit the local zoos when my daughter was little, but as she's grown older, we've had less desire to go. However, we never get tired of aquariums. Maybe it's the call of the ocean; the rhythms of the waves are peaceful and relaxing. Watching the movements of sea creatures like fish and jellies can be almost hypnotic. And every time we visit, we learn something new.

Not everyone lives near world-class aquariums, but you can experience the underwater environment virtually through Nintendo's new Endless Ocean game for the Wii.

This is a different kind of gaming experience, where you take on the persona of a diver exploring the waters of the South Pacific.

I wasn't sure my daughter and I were going to like it. In fact, she spent the first 20 minutes complaining of all the preliminary exercises she had to go through to "train" her diver.

Ninety minutes later, she was exclaiming that Endless Ocean was "Really cool!" -- and I couldn't get her to stop.

How realistic is it? Check out this video below:

Sounds like fun? You have until February 29 to enter a contest sponsored by Nintendo and Norwegian Cruise Lines where the Grand Prize is a seven-day Caribbean cruise. Details and entry are located here.