Before I had Felicity, I loved to travel. Whether it was a trip to London or New York or just a quick journey to Disney World, I loved hopping in the car (or plane) and taking off. I was pretty adventurous too-I did activities non stop when I traveled. My philosophy was that vacations were for doing, not relaxing-I could relax when I was dead!
All that changed with Felicity.
Felicity is almost three months old-she'll hit that mark in just a few days. I'm currently on spring break and teachers get a free pass to Sea World. So do members of the military. Children under the age of three get in for free. So Patrick and I thought, "Well, its free. She'll enjoy it!"
Pictured: an idiot
But you see, traveling with a child is not the same as traveling without a child.
I don't consider myself a high maintenance traveler. Especially just for a day trip.
But Felicity? The most high maintenance traveler that ever existed.
We brought THREE bags for Felicity. That's right-three. A backpack, a big bag with extras to go in the underpart of her stroller, and another bag with even more extras to go in the car "just in case" (if you're wondering, we used exactly zero of these extras). Inside these bags we packed diapers, bottles, go-gurt style containers of formula, extra clothes, burp rags, diaper wipes, shoes. We also forgot to pack sunscreen for my Irish baby and had to buy a container at an exorbitant price once we arrived.
Then we fed her, changed her, packed her in the car, and off we went.
We had to stop on the way to feed her of course.
We planned to be there at park opening (9). We arrived at 11, already exhausted from getting her ready.
It took thirty minutes just to get out of the car and ready to go. Felicity immediately hated the sun. My child is a vampire.
We headed to go see the dolphins, stopping on the way to hold her up to a flamingo and to look at sting rays. I have no idea if she was actually interested in these animals. She isn't interested in Amber or Shadow so who knows.
We saw the dolphins and then realized we were already hot and tired after seeing THREE animals. We decided to stop in the very nicely designed Antarctica section of the park to cool off. But while that area may look nice, it is deceiving. There may be fake ice everywhere but it is still Florida and the seating areas for the restaurant are all outside.
After paying $16.99 EACH for two mediocre meals, Patrick fed Felicity while I fed myself and fed him. In other words, he has Felicity in his arms. I'm feeding him a chicken strip. An hour later, we're done and ready to go inside the Antarctica exhibit to see penguins.
It was 32 degrees inside. I thought Felicity would enjoy that because it was so hot outside. I was wrong. I was very, very wrong. The screaming commenced.
I then watched Felicity while Patrick went to go ride the Manta ride. She napped until a screaming child woke her up. I wanted to be mad but my kid screams too so... Once he returned, we were off to the dolphin show.
15 minutes before the show, Felicity was cooing and smiling. As the show began, her mood darkened and she realized that she had NEVER been fed and was DYING of hunger and needed food NOW. She ate throughout the entire show. We kept turning her to see the dolphins but she would scream because she was still too interested in her bottle. She finished eating as the show ended.
We went to the shark exhibit next. I thought about waking her up but on second thought I'm not insane so I didn't.
Then I rode the Manta ride. Apparently my body has changed since pregnancy in more ways than I realized. I left with a backache.
And then we left the park. Despite having done very little, I was more tired than I have ever been on a trip. Felicity agreed.
