Five Things That Were Awesome

Five things that were awesome about our Sea World trip:

1. Hyatt Wild Oak Ranch. Three minutes from SeaWorld, adjacent to the fancy Hill Country Hyatt but totally kid friendly and beautifully landscaped. Indoor pool, outdoor pool, lazy river for tubing, little general store for when you forget your toothpaste. Fridge in the room for Ollie's milk and washer/dryers down the hall. This would be a perfect staycation for anyone in this area. I anticipate we will return for a longer stretch. It was a total find. And the service could not have been nicer. I don't think I've ever had a front desk call my room just to be sure "everything was OK."

2. Dolphins. Logan did not want to feed them but was very interested in looking at them and insisted he be allowed to go swimming with them.

3. Coral reef exhibit. While we were looking at the sharks a Sea World employee actually came over with a shark jaw to show the kids and let them touch the teeth. Our child, of course, was much too busy jumping up and down on a bench to be educated but it was nice to have a little extra tutorial. She helped us identify some of the specific sharks in the tank (we were trying to find a blacktip shark but it was hard to see).

4. Water park. I didn't realize how large the Sea World water park is. There are slides (which Logan is too small for) and a huge wave pool; complimentary life jackets (makes it a lot easier to hold the kids when the vest is doing some of the work) and a shaded shallow pool perfect for Ollie. After a brief dip in the wave pool I took Ollie back to the shady area where he had a blast splashing, swim/crawling and flirting.

5. Both kids slept almost all the way home. Logan went to sleep at 8 PM and did not awaken until 7 the next morning (other than a brief waking in which he was easily convinced to return to bed).

Later this week: Five things that were horrifying about our Sea World trip.