Marine World

When I was little, we went to Marine World every year with my Grandma and Grandpa for awhile. I have really good memories of those trips. Of course, this was in the olden days when Marine World was just about the animals, they didn't have rides other then the train and the tram that ran across the park. Then I got older and we stopped going.

Marine World moved to Vallejo and brought in all kinds of rides when they became a Six Flags park. We had gone with Jake and Auntie Sue right before we moved to Boise, but he was so little we didn't do a whole lot other than see the animals. So when we saw that we had some days to fill prior to the delta trip on this vacation, this trip was on the short list.

We went with Auntie Sue and Grandma Mary and had a great time! All of the kids had a blast, Marisa and I had a great time watching them and I had a really good time reliving some old memories.

Jake could remember some of our prior trip to Marine World and was really looking forward to it. As mom is no good for rides, I told him before we went that I would go on any rides he wanted to, but, he needed to be sure before we stood in line, because once we got thru the line we weren't getting back out. As soon as we walked in the park, he said he wanted to go on Roar, the giant old style wooden roller coaster. Now I double checked that he wanted to (I hate wooden coasters as they give me a headache because it's such a rough ride), he said he wanted to go, so we stood in line. He was a champ all the way into the car. When we got to the top of the first big rise, I looked over and he looked terrified. I looked back and started screaming as we headed down into the drop. Pretty soon I heard Jake screaming along and getting into it. We finished up and he was so excited that he did it. He didn't want to go on any of the other big coasters, but was proud of himself for going for it (I was proud of him too).

Tanner got left at home on our last trip as he was only 6 months old when we went, but he was looking forward to going. He was the perfect age for Marine World as he was young enough to lovethe animals, but old enough to appreciate the rides as well. He was too short to go on the big rides, but loved the littler rides. We did all go on the big flume water ride. He had a great time and we all got soaked. We also got to sit in the splash zone for the killer whale show and got drenched there as well. He had a great, but very damp day. Of course he ended up buying two killer whales and two dolphin stuffed animal so he had a whale family with his souvenir allowance.

We knew in advance that Faith would love Marine World. Recently we had asked her what she thought she might to be when she grew up. She thought about it for a few moments and then answered that she thought she would like to grow up to be a baby giraffe. To try to keep her dreams alive as long as possible we took her to feed the giraffes. She had a great time. She also loved the whales, dolphins, penguins and all the other animals. She also got stuffed animals for her souvenir allotment, we now have a big and baby camel that have joined her enormous herd up in her room.

Add it the henna tatoos, the cotton candy, the bumper cars and the cartoon characters roaming the park and it made for a perfect day with the kids and Auntie Sue and Grandma Mary. We had a blast and are trying to figure out how/when to try the Disneyland experience.