SeaWorld San Antonio currently has an unusual guest visiting the park. Our visitor comes to us from the Canary Islands where she is a Supervisor of Penguins at Loro Parque. At Loro Parque (Spanish for “Parrot Park”) Maria Almudena Gonzalez Robles is the supervisor of the “Planet Penguin” area of the park, which is home to over 200 King, Gentoo, Chinstrap, Rockhopper and Humbolt penguins, as well as Atlantic Puffins.

This past weekend Pete and Penny penguin joined the American Cancer Society and Continental Airlines for the Flight to the North Pole event. The event began when the clinically ill children diagnosed with cancer were led onto a Christmas decorated plane that would fly them to the North Pole.

We have known for a long time that our Park President Dan Decker is tall in Texas. But now his peers at the Texas Travel Industry Association’s (TTIA) have noticed as well.

So here we are, sitting at the sinkhole, a cave down below us. You can see no more than a few feet inside. The cave is in the middle of prime ranch land, with scrub all around. Bugs are humming. Birds are flying around. We see a skunk to our left. We are out in the middle of nature but right inside San Antonio, just off I-35 and 1604. What would a bunch of SeaWorld employees be doing at a cave, at 7:30 p.m., on an average weekday? To see the world’s largest aggregation of mammals, of course!

One of the greatest joys of working at SeaWorld San Antonio is participating in the outreach events that are available to team members. Knowing that actions speak louder than words, I find that reaching out is very rewarding.

More than 6,000 people attended this month's Annual Cookie Rally for the Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas at SeaWorld San Antonio. The park has hosted the event for the past decade, and this year SeaWorld team members treated the Girl Scouts to a special presentation of SeaWorld shows, including the new Shamu show "One Ocean." Scouts (who were tall enough) got to ride The Great White and Steel Eel coasters.

SeaWorld Camp kicked off the year in full throttle as we welcomed students from Texas A&M University at Galveston for a camp-style class offered through the University.

In honor of the gift giving season (see: Christmas, Boxing Day, Hanukkah), SeaWorld San Antonio team members took time to remember domestic animals in need in our local shelters. To support these animals, our team members pitched in for "Pet Tree" donations.