Homeward

As if to make us even happier that we're leaving, the wind is again blowing at 30+ mph. It's a beautiful, warm day except for the blankety blank wind that has plagued us all winter. We have had the rainiest, windiest, coldest winter in Arizona for decades, though it still beat what was happening around the rest of the country. We had about really nice days at home this winter, but there were an equal amount of nasty days. We helped our neighbor and friend put a cover on his trailer this morning in the wind. They, along with a few others, decided to leave their rig onsite 'til their return in the fall. A couple of us remarked how the cover looked like a hot air balloon! That cover was billowing and blowing all over the place. It took about six of us to get that thing on and tied down. Sure hope it stays on for the summer. We're taking our rig home with us.

Moving day! We arrived at Chula Vista RV about 4 p.m., had some dinner and went up to see Colleen's new apartment. She has a dynamite view of San Diego. Colleen served a delicious dessert while her two cats, Wil and Gracie, put on a shoe over Geri's shoes. We removed our shoes when entering Colleen's pad. Geri's are the lightweight canvas Keds, but the cats think they're catnip. Funniest thing to watch! They rub all over them and stick their heads down inside. Crazy cats. Funky shoes! LOL

Our first trip into Sea World in about 30 years. It sure has changed, as one might well expect. It's huge! The crowning glory of our day was the nighttime Shamu show and fireworks that followed. Wonderful! We wandered through many of the exhibits and checked out what took us to Sea World in the first place - a tunnel through an aquarium with fish swimming all around. Doing so was on Bruce's bucket list. This time it was sharks swimming around us. It was too dark for pictures of Shamu: Believe, but it was a great show and the fireworks were awesome!

Golf was followed by dinner at the Crazy Burger. Ever been there? Feel like an ostrich burger? You can find it here and just about any other kind of burger you can imagine. Whacky but fun place with good food and great company

Mark offered to fix Easter breakfast for us, and we happily accepted. We arrived at their apartment about 10 a.m. and had a wonderful breakfast waiting for us. How nice, and it tasted great! After a brief visit, we headed off with Colleen for Sea World again. Mark declined to go, though he certainly would have been welcome. Energy level for the two Oldtymrs was a bit low this morning, but Colleen was raring to go! She's young! It'll catch up with her one of these days just as it has with us. LOL

We hit the gate about noon and off we went. The first thing Bruce wanted was a caramel apple, and he bought some fudge to go with it. Ha! What a munchkin! While he ate his goodies, we wandered toward the Arctic Adventure ride. Colleen had been on that ride before and couldn't wait to share it with us. The ride is a simulation of a helicopter over the Arctic ice and the animals that live there. It was very realistic and thrilling! One soars up one minute, then down under the sea the next to watch some whales. Cool! Reminded us very much of Soaring Over California at California Adventure and Epcot, but not as smooth. Fun, fun!

There are Beluga whales, walruses and a polar bear on display in the exhibit that we enjoyed watching. Colleen says she will be back to interact with the whales. We had fun watching her and her enthusiasm for the critters. Her frequent question was, "How do I get a job like this?!" Here are a few pictures from the Sea Lions Live show.

"Shamu" is a name that carries on an on, similar to Rosie the bear at Tower in Yellowstone. The current "Rosie" has to be about a hundred years old. The Shamu name carries on, as well. From Wikipedia:

This article refers to the killer whale Shamu. For the SeaWorld shows of the same name, see Shamu (SeaWorld show)

Shamu was the second female orca ever capturedand was the third orca ever displayed in a public exhibit. She was the star of a very popular killer whale show at Sea World in the mid - late 1960s. After her death in 1971, the name Shamu continued to be used in shows for different killer whales in different parks.

History

Shamu represents the first successful intentional live-capture of an orca. Three previous orca captures had been more opportunistic. Shamu was originally captured to be a companion for the orca Namu at Seattle's public aquarium in 1965. But the two orcas experienced social conflicts so Shamu was leased to and then purchased by SeaWorld in San Diego in December 1965. Shamu was a Southern Resident orca, likely born in 1961 and captured by Griffin in Puget Sound in 1965. She performed in several SeaWorld shows and eventually died on August 23, 1971. She was retired from performing after an incident caught on video tape in which she grabbed and refused to release the leg of a female employee of SeaWorld, who was supposed to ride her.

As we were walking out of Sea World shortly after 3 p.m., people were standing around looking dazed and amazed. Come to find out they had felt an earthquake. We didn't feel a thing. We were totally oblivious! The word "earthquake" was heard around us but we felt nothing. Guess we were too high on the sugar we'd had throughout the day. :-) One family told us that the cars had been swaying and moving in the parking lot right in front of where we were standing. A light standard was swaying, and it was strange to watch people being freaked out.

When we arrived back at the trailer, there was a smell of sewage that was almost sickening. We thought we might have had a broke pipe somewhere. Bruce looked high and low all around the trailer and found nothing. It finally came to our realization that maybe the earthquake caused the air in the trailer pipes to burp back into the kitchen sink. That's where the smell was the strongest. Yuk! Luckily, the smell dissipated shortly after we opened all the windows and the door.

We heard later on the news that the quake was 7.2 magnitude, and we felt several aftershocks. In fact, there was a pretty good jolt about 4:17 a.m. Monday morning and another one a couple of hours later. SoCal is putting on a show for us! Bruce felt the quakes, but Geri slept right through them. Ha!

We had a great visit with Colleen and pointed the rig north for home. Our little house and family in the north were pulling us home. We're hoping for a peaceful and warm summer this year. We'll see . . .