Sea World's Christmas Celebration: Snow World

Every year around Christmas, Sea World does Christmasy things (they also do Halloween things around Halloween- that one's fun because they give out free candy!). The part that I liked best was Snow World, because of course kids in San Diego don't generally get much of a chance to play in the snow. There was sledding, a snowball shooting gallery, and a snowy area where you could just play. There are also Christmas shows, reindeer, and Santa, plus cookie decorating, flavor-your-own-snowcone, and hot chocolate.

There are also special Christmas shows! They have the animals do all the same tricks, but they use Christmasy names and have Christmasy props and costumes. Note: the photos are out of order. I don't know what happened, but the blog keeps moving them, and won't let me move them back. Whatever.

Snow World didn't open until noon, so I rode Manta a few times, and I petted some dolphins and some bat rays, plus I saw a show. 

Sledding- the best part! You're only allowed to do this if you are between 37 and 61 inches. Fortunately I'm only 5 feet tall, so I got in no problem. This was by far the best part, and it was the whole reason I went to SeaWorld. The line gets really long, though. 

I am totally a sucker for getting shots of jumping animals. As much as I tell myself, "this time, just enjoy it!", as soon as they start jumping, I get the camera out.  

If you hit any of the plastic windows, it makes a sound. It was pretty fun, but I wish I had brought my gloves, because my hands got too cold after only 10 minutes.

This part was a bit too silly for me. These actors are pretty amazing. 

Julian Hiking and Pie

My friends and I went to Julian with the intent to hike and then have pie.There was this waterfall hike that I really wanted to do, but it was a bit too long for some people, so we decided to do a shorter, easier hike. However, I still wanted to do the waterfall hike (even though I knew there wouldn't be much of a waterfall in November), so I found a couple of guys to go with me, and the three of us did 2 hikes. Then we all had pie! Unfortunately, no one got any photos of the pie, because we ate it too fast.

Lots of people like to jump into the pool, though you're not allowed to. You're allowed to swim, though. No one was swimming today, though, because the water was a bit murky, having been stagnant for awhile. 

Reflection

Trees actually change color in Julian!

There's a waterfall here, too, in the spring

Our group- minus my friend who was taking the photo (she's in other ones further down)

Volcan (not Vulcan) Mountain

Fancy trailhead

At the top!

The hikes we did were called the Cedar Creek Falls trail (the Julian trailhead), which was about 5 miles, and the Five Oaks trail, which was about 3 miles. We then ate pie at the Julian Pie Company, and walked around downtown Julian a bit. There's a fun tea shop, and a candy store, and several different pie places. 

SeaWorld

SeaWorld! It's pretty touristy, and I didn't go for the first year I was here for that reason, but it's actually pretty fun. I think my favorite thing to do is the dolphin encounter, where you get to touch a dolphin! The Sea Lion show is hilarious, and I really like the Arctic Encounter, though it's totally corny. It's not as absolutely wonderful as the zoo, but it has a lot more sea life (duh) which is cool. I mean, where else can you see beluga whales? Also, if you want to feed animals (sea lions and manta rays, I think, maybe others), you can pay a little extra, and while I've never done it, it seems like a fun experience.

Here are some tips:

• If you want to ride Manta, go either first thing in the morning, or when one or more shows is going on.
• Make sure you show up to the Sea Lion show at least 15 minutes early. It fills up, and there's fun stuff to watch.
• They let you sit on the stairs in the aisles during the shows (at least the outer aisles, and at least the Sea Lion show; I don't know about others), as long as you're all single file along one side. So, if you're late to a show and still want to sit near the front, that's an option. 
• It's about a 15-minute walk from the closest free parking spots, which is probably not worth it for most people, but it's what I usually do. The annual pass includes free parking, and you can get it for $99 at Costco (last I checked), so if you're planning to go more than a couple times, it's probably better to get the season pass than the fun card (which is $70, if you use a promo code). There's a bus stop that goes from the Old Town station, to a stop that's inside the SeaWorld parking lot, pretty close to the front, so that's another option (parking at Old Town is free, a 2-way bus pass is $5), but also probably not worth it to most people. 
• In case you're wondering, they do have security and they check your bags before you enter, but they're not very strict, and they usually don't look all the way to the bottom. You're technically not supposed to bring your own food into the park, but I think as long as you don't bring a huge cooler or flaunt a family-size bag of chips, you should be fine. 

Ok, here are my photos!

Sea Lion Show!

Climbing nets in Elmo Land (that is, Sesame Street Bay of Play)

Orca Show

Walrus

Penguin

Sea Turtle

Beluga Whale!

Dolphin Connection (my favorite!)

Sharks

Sea Lion Show again

Sea Lions (at the place you can feed them)

See the jumping dolphin?

Sea Lion parody of the above photo

Sea Lion parody of Manta

Sea Lion Halloween Show

Bayside Skyride