White Ibis and Snowy Egrets

Large groups of Ibis seemed to be very at home around the lakes and pools at Seaworld, whether perching at the edge of the water or scavenging around picnic tables..

In the dolphin arena there were also a couple of Snowy Egrets - fairly common birds in Florida who seemed intent on joining in the show.

The dolphins and other performers seemed unphased..

A wet day at Seaworld

A rather grey day dawned and although the temperatures were still around 30 degrees when I arrived at Seaworld,  there was little sign of the sun to cheer up the view over the lake.

It was soon raining very hard and I headed for the Shamu Stadium to watch the extraordinarily beautiful killer whales being put through their paces..

The front twenty-five or so rows of seating were labelled the 'soak' zone and warnings were issued about just how wet it could get - but there was still a collective sharp intake of breath as the whales jumped and splashed and hundreds of gallons of cold sea water sloshed into the crowd..

This was not the only opportunity to get soaked through..

These rather small children were on a Seaworld 'camp' and were led through the rainstorm (albeit warm rain) singing rousing marching songs at the tops of their voices!

On the 'Manta' roller coaster ride (no I didn't) the fearless (but screaming) riders were also pretty wet.

Some of the residents of SeaWorld seemed to be just resigned to the weather..

Disaster (Movie)

One of the attractions we visited at Universal Studios yesterday was based around the making of a disaster movie.

After queuing in the heat for some time we were herded into a room with a stage on which a young man explained that a number of 'actors' would be chosen from the audience to take part in the movie.

He needed a 'Granny' and picked on me unflatteringly quickly.  I was required to stand on the stage..

We were then taken in to the set and I was provided with a hat for my role as a gardening granny..

The scene played out with me doing my little bit of gardening in front of a suitable backdrop..

It was only when the 'movie' was played back that it became clear that my role was to be blown up - disappearing in a puff of smoke - just as well after this most unflattering shot..

The most depressing thing was that the assembled audience appeared to find my demise hilarious!

Several hours later and we were very hot and cooling off in a Coca Cola 'refresher' (think misty shower)..

We were approached by a lady who pointed me out to her two children..

'Oh look, there's Granny from the disaster movie...'

Fame?  You can keep it!

Universal Studios

As it was bright and sunny this morning but due to be very hot and thundery later, we headed to the Universal Studios theme park just after 8am.

Some of the rides were already busy - we decided to pass on this one..

We did visit the Spider Man attraction though which had some great 3D effects (holding on too tight to take photos).

This looked fun - but who wants to be this wet at the start of the day??

So, on to Harry Potter World and Hogsmead - snow, in July?

We queued for the Hogwarts ride - only finding out when it was too late to turn back that it was a fully fledged, locked in, roller coaster ride with some vertigo-inducing 'broomstick' flights.

We walked through the streets of Hogsmead and had breakfast..

Later we boarded the Hogwarts Express to go to Diagon Alley ..