Live Every Week Like It's Shark Week

So the title doesn’t have much to do with this post other than we did see a shark today and it’s one of my favorite Tracey Morgan quotes.  My day actually began really early.  I woke up for some reason at 4:20 and was surprised to find that the sun was rising.  We have a magnificent view of the beach from our hotel room, and I can’t say I’ve ever been up to witness a sunrise over the ocean before.  I decided to grab the camera and take a few pictures before I went back to bed:

We were very pleased with our hotel.  The Gold Coast is very built up with high rise hotels, casinos, and clubs, so I was glad to find a place that rented apartments away from all the noise.  I got a great rate (I guess most people want to be in all the hub bub of Surfer’s Paradise) and top floor one bedroom facing the ocean.  Wahoo!

In addition to the lovely beaches, the Gold Coast is the home of several amusement parks.  We got a multiple park pass, and the first day we hit Sea World.  I haven’t actually ever been to a Sea World in the US, so I can’t compare, but I did notice the absence of Free Willy.  No whales at this one, so I guess they made a successful break out in Australia.  Willy stayed free, no sequels here.

They had a few rides, but the main objective was to see the shows and animals.  The animals were a hoot, even the untrained ones.  We weren’t there long and I caught this pelican and another bird with their mouths open at the same time:

We went to a sea lion show, and then road a roller coaster.  Daniel and I kept remarking on the inefficiencies.  The people weren’t lined up for each spot.  They didn’t load and unload at the same time, there was no place to put your belongings, etc.  We really felt they needed to get a team from Busch Gardens down here to give a seminar.  We both remarked that we were nerds and needed to let it go.

We went afterwards to a place where you could touch stingrays.  Daniel decided they were too slimy, so he just took my picture:

We also got to see some tidal pools where you could touch starfish and sea cucumbers and such.  The sea cucumber was really soft and squishy.  I made Daniel touch it just because I knew it would gross him out.  He looked disappointedly at me and said, “You’re supposed to protect me from these sorts of things.”  They also had a huge coral reef viewing tank where we saw the sharks and huge sting rays, and this school of fish that was all bunched up together:

Then it was on to polar bears, where I learned that they actually have black skin underneath the white fur.  This one was doing some fun flips for me.  I decided to move on after he pulled up a huge mangled fish carcass he had put aside for a snack.

It was on to the penguins, who are soooo fast it was impossible to get a good picture of them in the water.  I went up to the top viewing area and found out that most of them were snoozing, where it was much easier to get a picture of a sleeping penguin:

Of course, it wouldn’t be Sea World without a dolphin show.  I managed to snap it at just the right time to get four of the dolphins leaping over the boat with the trainer in it:

We kept with the theme and had fish tacos for dinner, and stopped to see the beach at Surfer’s Paradise.  Daniel finally got to see the surf again: