Welcome to the Listening Time podcast.
Hey everybody, this is Connor and you're listening to episode 147 of the Listening Time podcast.
Thank you all for listening.
I hope that this podcast has been helpful for you for your English learning, and I hope that you find these episodes interesting.
And in today's episode...
I want to talk about some different attractions in San Diego, the city where I live.
What do I mean by attractions?
Well, I'm referring to like theme parks and things like that, right?
So this will be an episode that will give you some different information about, maybe even recommendations of, places that you can visit if you come to San Diego and you have the desire to see some of the different theme parks here in the city.
So I'm sure this episode will be interesting for you, especially if you want to come to San Diego one day.
And I wanted to do something a little different with this podcast episode.
I want to read a review that someone left for me on Apple Podcasts, because I've heard some podcasters do this, where they read a review from one of their listeners during their podcast episodes, and I thought that was kind of cool.
It's kind of like thanking people for listening and for reviewing the podcast.
So I want to do that today and maybe I'll also do that in future episodes, if you guys like this tradition.
But let me read one.
This was written by Callie and Jesus, I think.
And the review says, Your episodes help me a lot and I really love what you share today.
Thank you so much.
I'm improving my pronunciation and English fluency.
Keep it up.
Thank you, Callie and Jesus, for your review and for listening.
And if you leave me a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, I might read it like that in a future episode.
So I encourage you to do that.
And thank you all for listening, of course.
And, as always, I want to remind you that if you want my advanced episodes, then make sure to become a Listening Time family member.
The link is in the description below.
And if you want, my US Conversations podcast, in which I talk to other English teachers from around the country and we talk about a lot of topics and I give you the transcript of and the definitions of key words and phrases that we use.
You can also sign up for that.
The link is also in the description below this episode.
All right, let's get started.
Are your ears ready?
You know what time it is.
It's listening time.
Okay, let's talk about some different attractions in San Diego, some different places that you might be interested in visiting if you come here.
So the first one that I wanna mention is SeaWorld.
I have a friend that describes SeaWorld in this way.
He says that SeaWorld is the biggest and coolest aquarium that exists.
And SeaWorld is not technically an aquarium.
However, I really like this description of SeaWorld because in many ways it kind of is an aquarium, because it has tons of ocean animals that you can see there.
So It might not be a traditional conventional aquarium.
However, it's kind of like a big, awesome aquarium here in San Diego, in the sense that you can see really cool marine wildlife.
When we use the word marine like that, we're talking about animals or plants in the ocean, right?
So you can see some really cool marine wildlife at SeaWorld.
There are all kinds of different animals to see there.
And what makes SeaWorld kind of unique and different from just an aquarium.
Let's say, one of the things that makes it unique is that it has these different shows.
We would call them.
Uh, You don't just see the animals.
You also watch these different performances that SeaWorld puts on with these animals.
We can use the phrasal verb put on in this context to mean that there's some type of performance or show or exhibit or something like that that is hosted by a certain host.
They put on a show.
So SeaWorld puts on these amazing shows in which these animals actually perform.
It's pretty crazy when you think about it and when you see what these animals are trained to do.
So Admittedly, I haven't been to SeaWorld in many years, so I'm talking from my experience as a kid.
These are two different animals.
If you don't know what they are, you should look them up, because it will be hard for me to describe these animals here.
You should probably just look at a picture of them to know what I'm talking about.
But in this show they had these sea lions and these otters that acted and did this whole performance.
It was amazing.
There were also human performers, human actors there too.
And they performed with these animals and there was a whole storyline.
It was really cool, and there are other shows like this with dolphins and whales and things like that.
I don't know what's still there and what's not there anymore.
I know that SeaWorld has changed a lot since I last went, so they might not have all of these shows that I'm remembering, but I'm sure they still have some shows and this is still part of that theme park right and, if I'm not mistaken, there are also different rides.
A ride refers to this attraction in which you can get on something and it takes you fast or it spins you around or whatever.
Like a roller coaster is a ride.
So there are rides.
When I went a long time ago, I remember that there was this 4D movie.
4D because it was 3D, but it also added the element of like spraying you with water and things like that as part of the movie.
So that was really amazing back then in the early 2000s when I went.
That was a really fun thing for kids and there wasn't really anything else like it at that time.
So I have good memories of that as well.
So SeaWorld is definitely an interesting option to consider if you want to go to a theme park in San Diego.
Another theme park which is located in the north of San Diego, in the north of this county, as we would call it, is Legoland.
This theme park is exactly what it sounds like it's completely lego focused.
The whole theme of this park is legos.
I'm sure most of you are familiar with legos, this brand of these little bricks that you can use to build things.
Legos are really fun for children And even for adults.
So Legoland is a theme park here that is completely Lego focused.
And just the fact that its theme is Legos makes it very attractive for her families with young children, because kids love Legos.
So imagine being a young child and knowing that there's an amusement park.
That's just a bunch of big Legos.
That sounds amazing, huh?
So this theme park is more for younger kids.
I think that I read that it targets children from the ages of 2 to 12.
So younger children really like this park.
In all honesty, it's not really for adults.
So if you're traveling and you don't have children and you're in San Diego, I don't know if Legoland will appeal to you because, as I just said, it's more for smaller kids.
However, it's still interesting to see this park that's completely Lego focused and And there are different rides, but these rides aren't really scary.
They don't really have like scary roller coasters or things like that, because they want kids to be able to enjoy these rides.
And besides these rides there are also other attractions like different play areas with legos where people can build things with legos, and they have these lego cars.
I think that you can drive, and there are normal playgrounds.
A playground is a play area like at a park that has a slide and swings and the different things that children play on.
I think you know what I'm referring to.
So there are playgrounds and I think I saw there's also rock climbing where the kids can climb up these rock walls, and a lot of other fun things for kids as well.
So if you're traveling to San Diego with kids, Legoland is a place you might want to consider going to.
Next, I want to talk about Belmont Park.
This isn't as famous as the other attractions, the other theme parks that I'm talking about.
However, there's a special place in my heart for Belmont Park.
We use that phrase in English, that expression, there's a special place in my heart for something.
When we're talking about something that will always be special to us, even years later.
Even if it doesn't seem that amazing now, we might have good memories of that place or we might have positive feelings associated with that place.
And that's how I feel about Belmont Park, because I went there as a teenager with my teenage friends and I liked going there, specifically because it's right on the water.
It's this amusement park that's right on the beach, basically, here in San Diego.
And so you have the beach right there and there's Belmont Park right next to it, and it has this really California feel.
I think that's why I like it so much, because there are certain parks like this that are right on the water or on a pier, like the Santa Monica Pier.
A pier is this wooden structure that extends from the beach out over into the water.
So in santa monica there's an amusement park on the pier, right on the water, and that's a really california type thing.
And it makes me think of that cartoon rocket power.
I'm sure some of you watched this show as a kid.
Rocket Power was this show where these kids do these extreme sports like skateboarding and surfing and things like that.
And they live right by the beach.
And there's this theme park on the pier on this beach.
And it reminds me of the Santa Monica Pier.
And maybe that was the inspiration behind this show.
I don't know.
But that whole feel... is very California-esque.
It's something that makes us think of California when we see a theme park right by the ocean.
I just thought of another one in Santa Cruz.
There's also a theme park right on the water.
I like this, and so Belmont Park is like this as well, and so I really like that park.
However, it's small.
It's not a really huge theme park.
However, it has the classic amusement park attractions like a big roller coaster and a merry-go-round.
This is that ride that goes in a circle, where usually kids sit on horses or other fake animals and they go around in a circle.
This is a merry-go-round.
So it has a merry-go-round and bumper cars where you are in the car and you run into the other cars.
You bump into each other, as we say.
That's bumper cars.
So it has all of the classic amusement park rides and attractions.
However, for me, I really like it because it's right on the water and it has this very California feel to it.
And it reminds me of things like rocket power, like I mentioned earlier.
So that's another attraction that isn't as popular, but I wanted to include it because I think it's cool.
And one other attraction, maybe the most famous attraction in San Diego, is our zoo.
And I've already talked about this before, so I'm just going to talk briefly about it again.
Our zoo is one of the biggest and best zoos in the country and maybe even in the world.
I don't know.
But at least in this country, the San Diego Zoo is very famous.
It's one of the best.
And last year, my family and I had an annual pass for the zoo.
An annual pass just means you have a membership for one year where you can go whenever you want.
You just pay that one time at the beginning and then you can go whenever you want for the next 12 months.
So we had that last year.
And so we went to the zoo a lot last year, but our annual passes expired.
This means that they're no longer valid, right?
Because the year has already passed.
So they're expired now.
So we probably won't go anytime soon, but we might buy annual passes again soon next year, who knows?
But our zoo is really cool.
It has tons of animals, all kinds of different animals from different parts of the world, and there are different themed areas in the zoo, like there's an area that's for the savannah animals right and an area that's more for the bears, and you get my point.
The zoo has these different areas where you can see different animals from different parts of the world, and it has a lot of other features and attractions as well.
Um, like the sky fari, i think it's called.
This is where you take a cable car and it takes you up over the zoo.
So you're like flying in the air over the zoo and you have a really cool view of not just the zoo but the areas around the zoo.
It's cool, unless you're afraid of heights.
If you have that fear, then that specific attraction might not be for you, but for everyone else it's really cool.
And of course there are things like bus tours.
So you can go around the zoo without walking.
And there's a tour guide who explains everything to you.
And there are different shows and performances.
I think there's a movie.
If I'm not mistaken, I think they have a little movie theater.
I've never been in there, but I see it when I walk by that part of the park.
And there's a kids area that's really cool where kids can play.
And there are a lot of different interesting things there for young kids.
So it's a really family-friendly place.
When you go to the zoo in San Diego, you see tons of children, a lot of strollers.
Strollers are the things that you use to push your kids around, right?
They have wheels.
They're like little cars, right?
These are strollers.
So you see a lot of strollers, a lot of kids And a lot of foreigners.
If you go to the zoo in San Diego, you'll hear all kinds of languages being spoken, because people from all around the world visit San Diego.
And when they do, they often go to the zoo.
I think that The zoo is probably one of the top three attractions, one of the top three things that tourists are interested in seeing when they're here in San Diego.
So if you come here, you'll definitely want to come to the zoo if that's something that's interesting for you.
And lastly, I want to mention a theme park that's not here anymore, but it used to be here when I was a kid, and that was Soak City.
This was a really fun water park with water slides and different rides that have water in them and pools and play structures with water.
It was awesome and I'm kind of sad that it's not there anymore.
Now it's a different theme park called Sesame Place, like Sesame Street with Big Bird and Elmo and those characters.
I think they still have a lot of the water elements there because Before Sesame Place it also had already changed to a different park.
So when I was a kid, it was Soak City and then it was Aquatica and then it became Sesame Place.
So now it's not only water focused, but I think it still has those elements there.
But I have awesome memories of going to Soak City as a kid and going down these big water slides.
That at the time seemed really scary to me, but I wanted to go down them and be cool.
And when I actually finally had the courage to do the really big slides, it was really fun for me and i wanted to go again and again and i have great memories of that theme park.
But unfortunately now it's something else.
Maybe sesame place is cool too.
I don't know, but i only have experience with the now extinct soak city.
But i wanted to mention that one as a bonus one here, because that was honestly my favorite attraction in san diego as a kid, more than any other place.
But now it's gone, All right.
I hope this episode was interesting for you.
If you're traveling to San Diego, you'll definitely want to consider some of these places, some of these theme parks.
I'm sure you'll find them interesting.
We'll see you next time.
And if you want my other podcast in which I talk to different English speakers from around the country about tons of different topics, then you can also go down and click on the link below to sign up.
That's patreon.com slash us conversations.
And, as always, please give this podcast a five-star rating and write a review, and And maybe I'll read your review in a future episode.
And please share this podcast with anyone else you know who's learning English.
All right.
Thank you for listening to this episode.
And I'll talk to you on the next episode of Listening Time.
