Southern California Trip 2025: Part III - Sea World and Cabrillo National Monument

On Friday afternoon we returned to Sea World and finally got to ride Emperor. Allison and I rode it 5 times that day, including 3 at night! We first saw the ride being built on a San Diego trip in February 2020 and figured we'd come back in the summer when it opened later that year. Of course that was delayed for the pandemic, and it still wasn't open when we did come back in August of 2021. After 5+ years of waiting, we came to Sea World directly from the airport, and Emperor was closed. 9 days later we finally got our Emperor credit, which was fantastic! The city of San Diego will only allow Sea World to have coasters up to 150 feet high, but I think they've done an excellent job building the coaster within those limitations. 

After Emperor we went through the new Jewels of the Sea Jellyfish exhibit then let the kids run around in the Bay of Play.

While they played, I went over to see the Salsa dancers and the Polynesian dancers. We then reunited to go up the lookout tower and ride Riptide Rescue.

Allison and I wanted to go back to ride Emperor at night, but the boys weren't up for more rides. They toured the shark exhibit and took funny "duh" videos. This is a tradition Oscar and I started about 15 years ago. We were on a trip with a beautiful scenic drive, and Oscar had a bad attitude. I told him "you're acting so 'duhhhhhhh!" He cracked up and started taking videos of him and me saying "duh" with beautiful or interesting backgrounds behind us.

The boys thought it was hilarious that there's an exhibit all about different types of rakes. They took pictures acting like it was the most fascinating thing ever.

Emperor was temporarily closed (I believe they were going down to one train), so we got a ride on Electric Eel instead with a nice golden hour view. Emperor had reopened by the time we finished Electric Eel, so we ran over there. Our night rides were absolutely incredible! The first two rides were in the front row, and the view with the sunset was just spectacular (in Allison's own words). We still had some sunset on the 2nd ride and were also in the front row, but even on the final ride when we were in the 3rd row and the sky was completely dark, the ascent put us at the perfect angle to see the stars and constellations. She kept telling everyone at the resort what a great time we had! It's nice to have a coaster loving mini me!

Once Oscar and Tyler were done making "duh" videos, they went over to the Nibble Fish to exfoliate their hands and arms.

I enjoyed the color changing light tunnel we walked through on our way out.

The next day we moved over to the HGV Marbrisa resort. I would have preferred to stay in the same resort the whole time, but the Palisades resort only had availability through Sunday night. We needed an extra day before our flight out on Tuesday, but we could only use timeshare points if we booked 3 days in a row, so we stayed Sat - Mon nights at Marbrisa . We couldn't check in yet, but they let us do our laundry and watch the reptile show. A local reptile museum brings a few over every Saturday morning. We actually saw it on our previous visit here in 2019.

Once we'd moved our laundry into the dryers, we made our way to San Diego to get lunch and to visit Cabrillo National Monument. With it being Saturday, we figured it was a safer bet than trying to go to Sea World or any other theme park.

Here's the statue of Juan Cabrillo. To quote from their website, he "led the first European expedition that explored what is now the west coast of the United States. Cabrillo departed from the port of Navidad, Mexico on June 27, 1542. Three months later he arrived at "a very good enclosed port," which is known today as San Diego Bay. Historians believe he anchored his flagship, the San Salvador, on Point Loma's east shore near the land that becomes Cabrillo National Monument. Cabrillo later died during the expedition, but his crew continued on, possibly as far north as Oregon, before thrashing winter storms forced them back to Mexico.

Cabrillo National Monument, established in 1913, remembers Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo's voyage of exploration. It was the first contact between the coastal California Indigenous tribes, like the Kumeyaay, and men from Europe. Though the San Salvador stayed only six days in San Diego harbor, this journey and future Spanish journeys to the area would shape southern California’s complex history."

The kids worked on their Jr Ranger books, and we took a hike down the coast to the San Diego bay side. This area still looks similar to what Juan Cabrillo would have seen 500 years ago.

We then toured around the lighthouse and surrounding areas.

Tyler made another "duh" video in a beautiful area.

We returned to the visitor's center where the kids received their jr Ranger badges. Tyler had lost his booklet, so they just took him at his word that he'd done the activities and gave him a badge. Allison finished her book and got sworn in as an official Cabrillo National Monument Jr Ranger.

We then drove down to the ocean side of the peninsula.

It was absolutely beautiful, so of course, Tyler made another "duh" video.

We had pretty limited time there since it was close to park close, and there are rangers there to enforce it. When we arrived one reminded us that it would be closing soon, and at closing time, another ranger made sure we were on our way back to the car. Still, we made the most of the time we had. 

One last "duh" video before we drove back to the new resort.

On Sunday we went to church then just chilled at the resort. The kids and I went swimming and sat in the hot tub, the kids played on their tablets, and later we went over the pool area to play yard games and billiards.

On Monday we returned to Sea World for our final fun day in California. First we went on Emperor and Arctice Rescue, then we finally saw the Sea Turtles. We made it just in time for the feeding.

I had to get a picture with a Sea turtle behind me while wearing my Sea turtle shirt. The kids played the interactive Sea Turtle game, though it was sad there were only 2 consoles working out of 8.

From there we not back to the Wild Arctic to see the otter feeding. Oscar and Tyler went over early to the Orca show while Allison and I wandered through the penguin and sharks exhibits. 

The Orca show never ceases to amaze me, no matter how many times I see it.

The boys then left the park to get lunch, while Allison wanted to play for awhile and go over to the dolphin show.

The Dolphin and pilot whales show was great. I like that the dolphin show is different at each Sea World. At San Antonio they have Commerson's dolphins and Belugas. At Orlando it's all bottlenose dolphins, but they do a lot of exciting tricks. When I was in Orlando in 2009, they would remove the dolphins for awhile and bring in professional divers.

Before Oscar and Tyler came back for us, we took another tour through the incredible Jewels of the Sea. We hadn't had enough time here on Friday since it was much busier then. This time I got to explore it more thoroughly. The graphics they put on the walls and ceiling of the main area are so cool!

On our final day, our bags were packed very full, and we worried Allison's birdhouse would get crushed. Instead we hung it on the bush just outside our room's balcony.