As someone who spent his 32nd birthday at Disneyland being photographed with Winnie the Pooh, I have long believed that adults derive much more pleasure from Theme Parks than kids do.
I'm actually pretty convinced that it takes the wizening and hardening effect of the school of hard knocks, the classroom of mortgage enslavement and the personal tutor of salary dependency to allow you to fully enjoy, say, hundreds of people being utterly soaked by a killer whale frolicking in a giant-sized swimming pool.
As you can probably guess, Emma and I had a fantastic time at Seaworld in San Diego last weekend. Yes, it was a nice bit of escapism, but it was also much more than that. I was genuinely in awe of the legendary Shamu (or one of his/her eight stunt doubles) leaping into the air. I would liken it to the sight of say, a Boeing 747, looping-the-loop: very surprising, quite awe-inspiring, and really good fun to watch!
Even my most carefully-chosen words won't do the spectacle justice, so I've captured a little of the experience here for you. And if that isn't enough...imagine seeing Shamu AND being able to stroke a bat-ray, feed a dolphin, pet a shark (okay, a really small shark) and choose from literally dozens of junk-food outlets (oh, and one healthy option).
Anyway, it's fabulous...get yourself to San Diego for the weekend.
Luca and I took two friends from Italy and their children to San Diego not that long ago. While picking a place to sit and watch Shamu, I saw a sign that said "soak zone" and told them that Americans tend to exaggerate and that we could certainly sit there. It was far from the water - we'd get sprinkled at worse.
Cut to Luca's friends, their kids, Luca and I WRINGING our hair, our socks and ourselves after a TIDAL wave hit us.
We still laugh about it.
Posted by: Dushka | September 09, 2007 at 05:36 PM
SO true...we were a bit hot and thinking of sitting in the last two seats remaining in the FRONT ROW...SUCH a lucky escape!
Posted by: David | September 09, 2007 at 07:16 PM