We really enjoyed our visit to the Seven Sea’s Food Festival so was quite excited to head back the very next day for more time at SeaWorld.  The weather was much better, I was delighted the sun was shining again.  That one day of inclement weather was more than enough for me!  Plus, we still had stamps left on our lanyard to get more tasty food, always a bonus!

But we were most excited about meeting up with our photographer friend from last years press trip, we really clicked with him during those four days we spent together.  It was quite emotional for the boys when we parted ways.  This time around we also met his wife and daughter.  We had such an amazing day.  I feel like we have made lifelong friends.  It’s such a shame we live so far apart as I think we would be meeting up regularly otherwise, to eat donuts, ride roller coasters and drive go karts!

Richmond kindly gave the boys some astronaut freeze dried ice cream each!  They thought it was great and wolfed it down at record speed.

My eldest son rode the scary rollercoasters so many times!  I managed to get out of a fair few as Richmond’s wife, daughter and friend love coasters so much he could team up with them!  I still enjoyed three goes on Mako, I think he must have done it five times that day!  Then he rode Kraken twice with them and Manta once with their friend.  I had ridden Manta the precious day and found the G-force much more intense than August.  I think it was because we were right at the back of the ride this time. Apparently, the force seems stronger at the back!  Judging by my experience I would wholeheartedly agree with that…

We also squeezed in the water rides.  By the time we managed Infinity Falls the weather had started to cool as it was early evening!  But we all squeezed into a dryer after for some welcome heat!  I don’t normally use them, but I think it was 5 dollars well spent!

In the feature picture you will see another of the tasters we tried at the food festival.  That was the Chalupas Tostada from Mexico which had pulled chili chicken, green salsa, queso fresco and cilantro on a grilled corn tortilla.  I found it a bit spicy but then I like my food very mild, it received very favourable reviews from the rest of our party.  Another new taste for the day was the Cheddar Hush Puppies from the North Atlantic market.  They were cornmeal fritters served with smoke bacon and onion relish.  The relish was amazing, but I could have happily skipped the cornmeal fritter part!

We have lots more photos from our day.  But they are of us all with Richmond’s family and I wouldn’t want to share them without permission.  We laughed lots.  My eldest and the friend went on one rollercoaster where they had their arms up the whole time.  When they got off they didn’t want to be the first to put their arms down.  It was hilarious seeing them both desperate to rest their arms but both fiercely competitive!  On this day at SeaWorld Richmond’s daughter rode Kraken for the first time.  Nothing phases her when it comes to coasters!  She is such an inspiration.

We ended up staying in SeaWorld until it went dark.  However, by 7pm even though the kids still had energy for more rides us grownups were ready to get some rest.  But we left with plans to catch up on the Monday.