Plans thwarted. A happy ending.

On Thursday morning Hubs and I walked down to the concierge desk to figure out how to get to Sea World. That's when we found out that Shamu in Orlando caused a trainer to die and thus Shamu shows everywhere were shut down. They should resume the next day.

Instead, Hubs and I went to the Zoo.

On Friday morning Hubs and I learned that Shamu was not performing again, but would be back on schedule on Saturday. Saturday was schedule for lots of rain. Since the dolphins were also not performing, we decided to not spend $70 if we couldn't even see the main events.

Instead, Hubs and I soaked up the sun by the beach for the day.

On Saturday, it was raining. We decided to take the bus downtown to tour the USS Midway - a retired aircraft carrier. As we rode the bus, we talked with some locals who told us we must visit the La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya) cove where we could see the seals. They told us of some great restaurants in that area and said that it would clear up and the sun would shine. So, we saw the Midway and he sun came out. We quickly made a stop at the hotel to change my shoes and then headed out to La Jolla.

We missed our bus stop. The bus had been stopping at every other corner until we missed ours. Then the bus travelled 1/4 of a mile further before dropping us off in the pouring rain. We had a one-person umbrella which served to keep our faces semi-dry as cars drove by spraying us with water. Determined to at least see these seals, we walked and walked, searching for the cove.

We found the cove and the seals - though it was now so windy, rainy, and cold and our shoes and jeans were so drenched that we didn't get any closer than this:

We decided to forgo dinner in order to be dry and warm, only to arrive at the bus stop just as it was pulling away. After running after it and failing to catch it, we stood and waited - soaked and cold - for 20 minutes until the next one came. We ended up ordering Chinese and Hubs ran through the now hurricane-like weather to pick it up.

On Sunday we woke up to clear blue skies. We got to airport security to find that the snow globe Richard had bought for one of his coworker's children would not be allowed in carry-on luggage. He went back and checked his bag, then stood in the security line again.

In Denver, we were offered 1st class tickets to take a later flight, as well 2 free round-trip tickets good for a year. Considering we took this trip on free round-trip tickets, we were pretty excited about this! We got to Wichita very late and, after some searching, found Hubs's checked bag made it safely.

Although the trip didn't go as planned, we still had a happy ending.