Twitter Tweet-up at Sea World, Orlando- February, 2009

While tweeting one busy day, I happened to stumble across an announcement that there was going to be a Twitter "Tweet-Up" for all central Florida Mom bloggers. Excited as anything, I clicked on the link for more details, and opened up to a network of bloggers and people that would make such an exciting impact on my blogging life.

My girlfriend and I carpooled and took 3 kids two hours away, to meet Wendy Piersall and Ted Murphy at the amazing Sea World Orlando entrance. The only problem with that, is that I had never seen either one of them, (outside of their Twitter pics!), ever. We ended up showing up about 10 minutes later than we were supposed to be there because of an accident on I-4, but we got there. We looked around for a person wearing an orange shirt.. That day, I honestly think Sea World was plotting a great Orange Entourage, because everyone and their brothers were wearing orange shirts! Ok, maybe that was a little bit of an exaggeration, but seriously- there were a ton of people wearing orange!

After we found them, we talked for a little while, got the meet-up times, and headed into the park. We walked in, passed the shops and found the construction site for the new ride, MANTA. Alex is obsessed with Rollercoaster Tycoon, so we stopped a few minutes and watched the workers moving about. Alex informed me he wanted to come back as soon as it was opened. It is scheduled to open in May, this year.

We decided it would be best to try to plot out the day, but in the end, walked around in an organized dysfunction. We got to pet stingrays at the Stingray Lagoon, watch dolphins play and we even got to feed them at the Dolphin Cove. We watched the dolphin show and got to see sharks and other fish in an underwater tunnel exhibit. They swam freely around us, as we gazed and pointed while rolling on an automatic sidewalk to the other side. It was incredible! We took all three kids on the water ride, Journey to Atlantis, and shreiked as it dove down into the splash pool below! I knew there were shows at Sea World, but we ended up watching the dolphin show, the hysterical sea otter and walrus show, and the Believe Show which features the gorgeous Shamu, and the rest of the Orca Whale family. We sat in the "Splash Zone", and oh-my-gosh! It is *not* like smaller home shows, you get DRENCHED at the Believe show! The kids loved seeing the whales so up close, but when we got soaked with the chilly water, they wanted to move to drier seats.

The cold water on our clothes made the heat of the day a little more bearable as we walked through the rest of the park and saw penguins, and mermaids, and the kids got to play in the kids play area for awhile while my friend and I got a moment to reflect on the day. All in all, we had a blast at Sea World, and we met some great people, other mom bloggers, and Ted, and experienced the beauty and wonder of Sea World up close and personal. This experience was like no other, and I cannot say enough great things about the theme park and the exhibits. It was wonderful!

If you haven't had a chance to view my article on Dolphin Bubbles, feel free to check it out, and leave some feedback! I am including the link to more of the pictures below for a short period of time.