Sunsets and SeaWorld: A Holiday Trip in 2007

We spent the week between Christmas and New Year's down in San Diego back in 2007. What I remember most vividly from that trip are the sunsets. Every single evening, the sun would just drop right over the Pacific, silhouetting the city and the coastline. The light was incredible, creating these really intense, starburst lens flares.

Of course, the main reason for the trip was a day at SeaWorld. I hadn't been to a place like that since I was a little kid. We saw the dolphin show first, with trainers in wetsuits guiding them through coordinated jumps in a huge, crowded amphitheater.

The orca show was the main event. The sheer size of the killer whales is hard to comprehend until you see them up close. During the performance, one launched itself completely out of the water right in front of us. They'd also swim by the edge and send a massive wave of water over the first ten rows—hence the sea of people in blue plastic ponchos. It was an impressive and very strange spectacle, watching these giant creatures perform on command.