July was a busy month for my family. My mom's brother Kerry and sister Susan came out to California to visit (along with their families, and it was the first time that they and I had been here in many many years (about 13 for Kerry's family, over 20 for Susan). So I got to spend some time with my uncles, aunts, and cousins, some of whom I hadn't seen in over a decade and some of whom I had never met (because they hadn't yet been born last time we were all together). We took a trip out to Sea World (it's only about 20 minutes from where I live), took a lot of photos, and had a lot of fun. My mom's side of the family are tall and funny (apparently I take after that side of the family in everything except coloration, as I'm the dark-haired tan guy while they're all red-haired and fair-skinned, and my sense of humor is exactly like my uncle Kerry's) and not afraid to laugh at themselves, which I think is a good trait.

A beluga whale, swimming on its back. This was in the arctic encounter, so I'm guessing this guys (which may be the smallest kind of true whale, I'm not sure) is used to the freezing cold. The line across its body that you see in the picture is from a seam in thewall of its exhibit.

Another shot of that beluga.

That beluga again, coming up for air. I like how they look like they're smiling casually, as if to say, "What's up, land-lubber-dude?"

A dolphin in the dolphin petting cove.

My cousin Erin petting a dolphin. Born of two very tall people, Erin is well over 6 feet tall (she's taller than me, actually). She's the daughter of my aunt Susan. This visit was the first time I had met Erin. Sucks having family all the way across the country. :/

A hungry dolphin coming up to people at the edge of the pool. Sea World has scheduled feeding times where guests can buy fish to feed to the dolphins, and the dolphins know where their daytime meals come from.

My cousin Mackenzie waiting to feed the dolphin. Notice how Mack cleverly holds the smelly fish in his hand, wary of the egrets and seagulls nearby who'd love to snatch it away (the fish, not his hand).

Mack throwing a fish to the dolphin. Mack is the son of my uncle Kerry and his wife Linda. This trip was the first time I had met him (last time his parents were out in California, Mack hadn't been born yet.

One of the aforementioned sneaky egrets waiting to steal fish from Sea World guests. Crafty buggers.

This dolphin says, "Gimme a fish!"

This is my cousin Seth feeding a dolphin. I met Seth for the first time earlier this year when my sister, my girlfriend, and I took a trip to New York (his parents, Kevin and Susan, live in New Jersey).

This dolphin is just chillin.

This dolphin got really close so he could say, "Gimme a fish!" Petting the dolphins was cool.

My cousin Zachary (Mackenzie's older brother) petting a dolphin. The last time I saw Zack he was two.

Zack petting the dolphin, Mack waiting for an opportunity to feed it something other than his brother's hand.

This is a manatee, a docile herbivorous sea mammale native to Florida. They're very neat. When relaxing they clunk to the ground underwater and just sit for a while.

A pair of manatees in their exhibit.

A manatee spinning as he swims downward. I saw several of them do this so it must have some purpose. Or they're just playing.

"Hello, I'm a manatee! Gimme some lettuce!" Last time I was at Sea World I saw them feed the manatees ... they actually grab the lettuce with their stumpy little arms and hold in to their mouth.

"Maybe there's some lettuce over here...."

"Hello, fish, do you have any lettuce?" "Hi Aquaman!" (bonus points to anyone who gets that reference)

Another manatee lounging on the ground underwater.

And another.

"Any lettuce down here? No?"

So there's a big tank at Sea World where you can observe the killer whale underwater or watch it from above. Here it is a little bit away from the underwater viewing area, swimming about.

It turned around ...

... got closer....

... and spent five minutes moving back in forth at the glass in front of everyone, watching people. It was totally awesome. They're really big and amazing creatures.

Outside of one of the penguin exhibit (which was refrigerated for the cold-loving emporer penguins) there was an outside area with some warmer-climate penguins, including these guys, who were happy to greet people ...

... or swim around.

A polar bear in the arctic encounter, sleeping off a big meal of unlucky tourists.

Seymore the Seal, the star of a performance put on my some of the Sea World crew, two seals, an otter, and a very fat walrus.

Some shark babies in a pool. The shark encounter was neat, and included a plexiglass tunnel where you could walk and have the sharks above, next to, and below you, but it was dark enough that I couldn't get any good pictures of that (I could have used my low-light setting but the sharks were moving too fast for those to come out).

A shark resting in the shark encounter, who sat still long enough that I managed to get a clear picture of her. :)