California 2011- Part 1-Sea World pictures.

We’re home from a lovely 10 days spent in California. And back to reality- with suit cases to unpack, groceries to buy, work, chores-  our grass was so long, Alfred had to cut the whole yard down a bit with a weed whacker before he could mow.

Yay for California! Despite the stressful flight to and from CA…my calm, sweet Vincent becomes an angry, screaming baby at 30,000 feet…we really enjoyed ourselves.

2 days were spent in San Diego. Here we went to a college graduation ceremony for Alfred’s brother (Renaldo double majored in African Studies and Biology at San Diego State!!) Also, we got to go to Sea World and the beach. I love San Diego. I so wish I could live there.  

We also celebrated Alf’s parents 50th birthdays ( a joint-surprise Hawaiian themed birthday party!)  We were able to see and catch up with lot of the family here-great grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins.

Then Alfred and I were able to escape alone for a few days while the kids spent some quality time with their grandparents.  We traveled to the central California coastal area to visit my uncles Butch and Scott.  They just recently moved to Salinas, which is about 6.5 hours away from Indio, where Alfred’s parents live.  I fell in love with this part of  California with it’s mild, Mediterranean climate and beautiful rolling hills.  And wineries and wineries galore. I wish I could live here too.

 

First up…. pictures of Sea World!  

We went to a sea lion/sea otter show. (I love sea otters! )These guys put on an impressive show and had the audience laughing the whole time.

This is Seamore.

 

 

Nap Time

 

 

 

Elora had fun at the sprinkler playground, jumping in the bounce house, petting a tortoise…Vincent slept through the fun.

 

 

 

Vincent with Uncle Renaldo       

 

 

And it turns out that Alfred’s mom speaks dolphin. When she started talking to this one, he started chattering back!  Gloria the Dolphin Whisperer.  

 

 

 

    And you can’t go to Sea World without seeing Shamu.

Killer Whales are massive! And smart! They respond to hand signals and get rewarded  with big chunks of ice and buckets of fish.

 

 

The first 14 rows are the splash zone.  If you sat here, you were most definitely going to be drenched.