Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006

Big whales, scary sharks, flippin’ dolphins … that is what SeaWorld is supposed to be all about, right? Well, today we are going to find out for ourselves. For a change, our campsite is only about a 5 minute drive from where we want to go. I must say that I LOVE going to these kinds of places in the off season. There are virtually no crowds. When we arrived we were informed that the Shamu show was going to start soon and we were also told that this is the main attraction so we should check it out, so we did. It turns out that Shamu is the name of a killer whale and the show highlights a number of different killer whales doing some very amazing things. The show was quite incredible and even though we sat a little closer to the action in the “soak zone”, we managed to escape getting drenched. That was a good thing as the temperature was not sufficiently warm to dry us off quickly. But it was, as I am sure you already assumed, sunny and comfortable. Shorts and t-shirt weather for sure. We then headed over to the biggest of the roller coasters there, Atlantis. Like most things here, it too combined a little water action. The seat I chose left me fairly dry but the kids were up front getting totally plastered with water. They thought it was great. That is until we got to the next exhibit. More on that in a minute. Perhaps the best part of this ride was the fact that there was no wait time. I am serious when I say no wait time. After our first run when our “car/boat” returned to the place where we are supposed to get out and let the new people get in, we took a look to see how many people were waiting to board and there were … ZERO! I couldn’t believe it. We asked if we could just stay in our seats for a second run and the attendant said “Sure”. After about four rides the kids were ready to move on. So, as I mentioned above, we were off to another exhibit, the Arctic Zone. The cool (no pun intented) virtual helicopter ride to get us there was fun but A-P, with his soaking wet shirt, almost went into hypothermic shock by the time we got to the room where they show people how cold it gets in the Arctic. Chantal rushed him out just in time to go outside, put on a dry shirt, and stand in the sun for more warmth. After this emergency passed, it was on to the Shark area where the highlight had to be the underwater tunnel letting you view sharks swimming just over your head. Totally “gnarly”, if I may borrow a term from weekend our host, Brian, who grew up in southern California. Then we slipped over to catch the sea lion show that was way more fun than it sounded like it would be. Well done with lots of humour and slap stick action. And then, as we were thinking about wrapping things up, we lucked out and happened to meander by the dolphin area at Dolphin feeding time. So we got some fish, waited for one of the approximately twelve million dolphins in the normally commodious pool to swim by, and then gave them a few pats before tossing them a fish. That was great. And then, as we were about to head out again, we heard that they were just about to start one last Shamu show for the day. We decided to catch a second viewing of this killer whale show (hey, that could be taken both ways … killer whale SHOW … or KILLER whale show) since we were right there and it was about to start. The advantages of the off-season, eh? The show was great once again. I actually liked it better since I wasn’t burdened with the need to take photos. Then it really was time to head out but we left with another fabulous day under our belts.

Today’s word:

commodious \kuh-MOH-dee-us\, adjective:
Comfortably or conveniently spacious; roomy; as, a commodious house.