Hawaii - Take Two

Sunday, blah.  Saturday night I started to not feel well after Ryan bumped my nose and I'm not sure if that had anything to do with it but as the evening wore on I felt worse.  I was pretty achy and thought maybe I was getting a flu bug.  Sunday morning I slept until 11:30, got up for almost an hour then went back to bed with Ryan while he had his nap.  I slept for almost three hours and only got up because Tim woke me.  I was so exhausted and sore I could hardly hold my head up.  I'm not sure it was a virus though as there was no mass exodus of partially digested food from my system.  Perhaps it was the fibromyalgia.  Whatever it was, it rendered me useless for the entire day.  Since it was a rainy day the kids didn't bother getting dressed and the only one who went outside was Tim and that was only to take out the garbage.

Although I was still tired today I was feeling better which was good because we had chosen this as the day to introduce Tim to the Hawaii Water Park at Royal Ocean World in Fu Shun.  He took the day off work and it was rainy again so it was great timing.  It wasn't too busy either.

This time I had to make sure that Ryan got to see the dolphin show since we missed it last time.  Nick and Tim had no interest in going so when we got to the ticket counter we split up to make it easier.  Ha!  Keep dreaming, Jan.  I told my ticket lady that I wanted Hawaii and showed her 'dolphin' on the iPod.  She showed me the ticket and I said yes.  No problem there.  However, since Tim and Nicholas went to the lady right beside us, even though Tim told her just 'Hawaii', she was confused when she saw me purchase a different ticket.  After a lot of finger pointing and using the few Chinese words we know, it was all sorted out and Ryan and I took off for the show that was starting in about ten minutes.

We made our way through the building into where the polar bears, penguins and walruses are when Ryan started to dance and said he had to pee.  I took him down a set of steps where the sign was pointing to the bathroom and we discovered a whole area with lots of different animals that we missed the last time .  As we reached the bottom of the steps a woman kept trying to usher us out saying "The dolphin show is starting upstairs.  It's starting very soon."  I finally got her to shut up long enough for me to tell her that Ryan had to pee.  She apologized and directed us to the bathroom.  When we came out we realized that there were more dolphins, turtles, sharks, jellyfish and large aquariums with tropical fish.  I wanted to stay and look longer but Ryan still wanted to see the polar bear and the dolphin show was starting in a couple minutes.

We looked around quickly then went back up the stairs to the polar bear and walruses.  As we were standing there looking the same woman from downstairs came over and again tried to get us to leave for the dolphin show.  Finally I said, "Do we have to go?" and she said that of course we didn't and left us alone.  I know she was trying to help but I almost said, "We've seen the dolphin show and it's not that great".  But I didn't.  After looking around for a bit longer we made our way to the stadium and we had only missed a few minutes of the show.  It was the same as last time with the woman on the mic babbling while the dolphins sat and waited for the trainers to give them a signal.  I didn't get any pictures of the show since I took some last time and it didn't look any different today.  We ended up leaving early to go check out the seals and sea lions.  It turned out to be not such a great such a great idea since I'm pretty sure I saw a dead sea lion.  I don't think they normally lay on the bottom of the pool in a corner, not moving.  I find myself in a real dilemma when I see something like that.  I don't want to support a place that doesn't take good care of the animals but I still want to teach the kids about wildlife so they can have an appreciation for it.  

Ryan and I made our way outside and found Tim and Nicholas who had been waiting for us.  We all headed to the water park and were there by about 11am.  I'll let the pictures do most of the talking here.

We spent most of the day at this spot, the Lava Spa.  The water was warmer here and poor Ryan got too cold in the other pools.  He didn't shiver as much at this one.

The reason for the pictures of the guys below is the big, round, red spots on their backs.  You see quite a few of these and they are from the hot cups they use for therapy.

Every couple of hours they do a little show on this stage and start the wave machine.

Everyone lines up at the front to get the biggest waves.

The dancers we slightly less than enthusiastic.  It's not Disney!  But then they don't charge nearly as much to get in.

One of the fun, but colder spots.  We didn't last too long here before going back to Lava Spa.

We had a great time and closed the place!  It was after 4pm when we left and everyone was tuckered out.  We made our way home to have some supper and showers.  Nicholas has decided that next time he wants to come into the aquarium with us since we found all those new animals.  He's quite fascinated with sharks and dolphins lately.  With all the time he spent in the water today, he could be one!

Well, that's it for today.  I hope everyone had a nice weekend!