I have a new friend - a dolphin named Lester!

Chris and I FINALLY redeemed the gift card that he gave me for my 30th birthday last year. Just in time, right? I mean, it isn't like my bday is now less than a week away! ;) Anyway, he bought me a gift card to go to Discovery Cove (http://www.discoverycove.com) here in Orlando. Discovery Cove is a small park owned by the Sea World folks (or maybe just affiliated with Sea World...) where you can have interactions with many different kinds of marine and bird life. The focus point of the day was our swim with a dolphin. When you arrive, you are assigned your dolphin swim time for the day and you end up breaking up into groups of about 8 for a dolphin interaction. Lester was a thirtysomething dolphin (kind of an old guy by dolphin standards) and was short and stocky. WOW, it was like I was meant to be his friend! :) He did a few tricks for us, "talking" on command, waving to us with his flippers and tail, letting us give him a "dolphin carwash" (where he swims by you and you get to rub him down). He posed with us for still photos as well as photos with us kissing him on his bumpy snout. The best part of the visit was him allowing us to swim with him. One hand on his dorsal fin, and one hand on his flipper and he swam us about 100 or so yards. It was way too cool.



Above: Me and Lester taking a swim

Below: All of the dolphins in our session... Lester is on the far right.




Also at the park we swam with and fed stingrays. Their barbs are cut so there is no risk of injury to the human visitors (it isn't painful, kinda like cutting your fingernails). They also had a coral reef where we got to swim around and see all kinds of fish and more rays (devil rays that weren't with the stingrays). They had a resort pool that was 85 degrees (which was great because it didn't quite reach 70 on Saturday when we were there - we were wearing full wetsuits, but it was still a bit chilly) and a warm lazy river to enjoy. The final part that they had was a bird interaction area where you could feed all kinds of interesting birds, big and small. We went in twice, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Some of the birds were really huge, but I think my favorite was the small bird area. A little "mouse bird" from South Africa stole my heart. His name was Captain Jack and was the sweetest little thing. I fed him and he curled up in my hand and took a nap. Too cute! I just hope Franco isn't jealous :)

Yesterday (Sunday) we went to Sea World for a day. It was great. I have to say I was very impressed. I'm usually quite a Disney snob, but Sea World really exceeded my expectations. So much so that we upgraded our day pass to an annual pass! I can't wait to go back!