Dolphins! and a short blob about Discovery Cove

Dolphins are pretty interesting mammals. Smart, great swimmers, and their skin feels like a swim flipper (the rubber kind.....seriously!). Plus, they always look like they are smiling! The black and white ones are the neatest, but rare in the parks so hard to get a photograph of. This "regular" dolphin loved the camera though! Click on him to see more!

Dolphin head in aquamarine water by SusansZooCrew

A few years back a friend and I went to Discovery Cove in Orlando. Cost an extra $100 to swim with the dolphins for 30 minutes. Well, you don't really swim with them......that's misleading...that conjures up images of you in a tank of dolphins. What really happens is you stand in a line and the dolphin goes past and lets you touch him (which is how I know they feel like a flipper). Then, you swim out a ways and the dolphin "kisses" you for the camera. Then you hang on to the fin and WHEEEEEEEEEE get taken back in! Dolphin ride!!

After (or before depending on what time your turn is) you can go shuffle around with the stingray pool. Shuffle? Yep-you really don't want to step ON a stingray! Then you can go swim in the giant aquarium-big round pool with a fake reef in the middle and fish and rays swimming around and around. If you can hold your breath long enough, the bottom of the reef has a small shark inside of it behind glass you can see.

It's pretty cool.......but expensive for what you get. I was told the Florida Keys has a dolphin experience that lasts longer..... I probably won't do it again due to the cost, but I'm glad I did it then :)