December Nights and SeaWorld

After Thanksgiving, I found out Balboa Park had something called December Nights the first two days of the month. Entrance was free, but it seemed like parking would be more expensive than taking a Lyft/Uber, plus they offered discount codes specifically for this event. So Friday night, Eric and I used Lyft for the first time and went to December Nights!



By far one of my favorite things to do around Christmastime is to hear Christmas music live, whether it be a choir, orchestra, or singing along in church. There is something so magical about it. Last year we went to the National Cathedral, this year Spreckels Organ Pavilion was a wonderful surprise. This was definitely my favorite part. They had different choirs/bands all night long. I could have stayed there much longer.



But there was so much to see, we decided to keep moving. They had beautiful lights everywhere, and elaborate decorations.





As beautiful as everything was, it was insanely crowded. So crowded we could hardly even walk around. I felt bad for any mom there with a stroller or little ones. It was too much for us.



They had a cute area to walk around and shop from local artists studios.



Being the geology buff that he is, Eric particularly enjoyed going into the studio of the San Diego Mineral and Gem Society. I picked up a flyer about joining them on an actual dig, and I'm pretty sure it is officially on his bucket list now.



It was a great way to kick off December and get into the holiday spirit. We probably wouldn't go back again next year, solely because of how bad the crowds were. Although I would consider it just to stay and listen to the music at the organ pavilion the entire time.



On Saturday afternoon, we rode our bikes to SeaWorld. We saw they had three Christmas-themed shows that we wanted to check out. We also still have quite a few passes to use up by the end of December!



They too had beautiful decorations everywhere. It also wasn't nearly as crowded as Balboa.



As soon as we got there we headed straight to the dolphin show and made it just in time.









After the dolphins we had about an hour to ride a couple rides before the next show.



We saw a beautiful sunset on the bayside skyride.





We rode the roller coaster that was themed with Christmas music and lights.



Then headed the the sea lion show.



It was pretty cute and funny - I actually really like their Christmas version.



After that show ended we had just enough time to get to the last show we really wanted to see - a completely new one that we heard is a Christmas nativity musical.

Apparently it must be a good one because as soon as we walked out of the sea lion show we heard over the intercom that the nativity show was filled to capacity and to come back for the next one (1.5 hours later). We were getting pretty hungry so we decided we would hold off and come back next weekend. We took a walk around to look at some of their lights before biking home for dinner.











I was very impressed and I'm actually really excited we have another excuse to go back so soon. There is still a lot we didn't see so we're looking forward to making another trip tomorrow afternoon :)