Six Flags Discovery Kingdom

On Saturday when I should have been packing away like crazy, I went to Marine World a.k.a. Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. I had never been before and thought it would be a fun place to go before I moved away. I invited Sarah to come along.



She was so excited. She couldn't stop smiling. We left at 8:30 a.m.
We went and picked up my friend Heather and her daughter Ciana. We had a great time. Ciana and Sarah were so cute together. They were holding hands almost the entire time.

One of the first things we did there was go and see the killer whale show.

Then we decided to go on some rides. Sarah is out of control when it comes to roller coasters. The bigger, the better. She was barely tall enough to go on Medusa. She was so excited. Everyone in line kept asking her if she was really going to go on it. She was like "you betcha". It was so cute. I personally was not thrilled to go on it. I am not a huge roller coaster fan, but Sarah needed an adult to go with her so I went on it. Lucky us we got in the very front row.

It was quite the thrill to be hanging in the air face down with only a metal harness holding me in. I was more concerned for Sarah but she was laughing like crazy. It was a fun ride until we went up the second ramp and then we were thrust backwards to do the entire ride backwards. That is when I really thought I was going to die! Obviously I didn't die, but it was a little much for me. When we got off Sarah was laughing so hard she could hardly talk. She did the little skip that she does when she is so happy. Her little pigtails were bopping back and forth and she yelled "That Rocked the House" Everyone was just shocked that this little 6 year old was so daring and that she loved it so much. She wanted to go again, but I just couldn't handle it. Once was enough for me. We also went on the White Water Safari. This picture is while we were waiting in line for the ride.It was a lot of fun and we all got soaking wet.

So much for having a "good hair day"

We also went on a ride that I can't remember the name of, but it was a boat and half the people sat on one side and the other half sat opposite them. The boat then rocked back and forth soaring higher and higher each time. This ride did me in! I thought for sure I was going to throw up. I couldn't wait to get off. Of course Sarah and Ciana loved it. They had their little hands up and were screaming and laughing. I just couldn't wait to get off the darn thing. We decided to take a lunch break and a break from the rides.

We decided to go check out some of the animals. We saw dolphins,

(Girls in front of the Dolphin Pool)

We saw Giraffe's

A White Tiger

Just "hanging out" in front of the white tiger exhibit. (or maybe it is two monkeys)
and Lion's. They were beautiful. I rarely get to see Lion's at zoo's. I guess I am used to the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park where they are always blending in with their surroundings. Plus I learned on the Discovery Channel a long time ago that the male lion sleeps like 20 hours a day! So I was thrilled to see both the male and female awake and checking us all out.

As we were watching the Lion's, the male was totally staring us down. It was awesome!!! Then all of the sudden he stood up.

He started to come down the rocks he was on. The King of the Hill was on the move. We were all anxiously looking on to see what he would do. I had my camera ready. This is what I caught on film....

and then he was done. Let me tell you that I was not the only one clicking away on my camera. It was funny. Let me tell you once the wind started blowing our way... Whew... We moved on to other animals. In the next exhibit were some baby cougars. They were so cute. The trainers were in the cage playing with them. It was so cute! I was clicking away again, I saw the squat...

Sure enough, just like it's cousin it was giving us all a show!

We then went to see the Elephant show. It was so cool because we were so close. It is amazing how smart Elephants are. The trainer was showing us all kinds of things that the Elephant could do. The balance they have is really quite amazing considering how large they are.
This was the cutest!

Then the trainer showed us how they have the Elephants lay down on their sides so that they can examine them and bathe them.Then the trainer jumped up on the Elephants stomachwhat came next shocked us all. It was a big loud "Thuuuuuuddddd". It was ELEPHANT GAS! The entire arena erupted in laughter! The trainer was even caught off guard. Guess where we were sitting. Yes, right at the rear of the Elephant and down wind. Oh my gosh I have never smelt anything so putrid in my life. I also laughed so hard just like I was in grade school! It really smelt bad. I said "What on earth are they feeding these animals". It was just so funny because first we see the Lion take a big "D", then the baby cougar took a "D" and then the Elephant let one rip!!! It was great! We also got to see the strength of an Asian Elephant moving logs. Sarah got to participate in a tug of war with the Elephant. She is in the very back.

She also got to feed the Elephant a cookie. I only got the top of her head because it was so crowded I couldn't really get a good shot.

We also went to go feed the Lorakeet's. But they were not hungry. We go there too late. They sure are beautiful birds. They reminded me of my Dad. I know he would have loved to be in there.

We also went in the butterfly exhibit. It was very humid in there, but well worth it. We saw so many beautiful butterflies.

I can't believe I got such good pictures of the butterflies. It looks like I got them off the Internet, but those are the pictures I took. This tropical exhibit again reminded me of my Dad. I couldn't help but think "If Dad were here, he would stay at this exhibit the entire day"

After the Butterfly Exhibit, the girls went on a few more rides by themselves. I really wanted to see the shark exhibit. I just love sharks. Unfortunately, this is the closest we got to the exhibit. It closed at 6:00 p.m. for "Sharks in the Dark" a program where you can spend the night in the shark exhibit. We arrived there at 6:10 p.m. Bummer....



Then we decided to go on another water ride. I don't know what we were thinking, but it was so fun! The only problem was that we got completely soaked! It was the funnest ride, but we were freezing!!!!
We went on a few more rides and then it was time for the park to close. We walked the long, long, long walk to the car. We were all so happy to get out of the wind that seemed so cold because we were wet. I turned the heat up full blast and it felt so good. We then went out to dinner at Red Lobster. Both Ciana and Sarah fell asleep on the way home. They both were so good the entire day. Heather and I really enjoyed being able to spend an entire day together without getting interrupted all day with phone calls and customers at work. It was the perfect day! We didn't get home until 11:30 p.m. I dropped Sarah off at home and went back to my apartment and dove into my bed. I slept in until 10:30 on Sunday! It was perfect!