Day 6 ~ Discovery Cove

The cool temperatures returned over night ~ still better than the snow that arrived at home!
When I got to Discovery Cove around 10 this morning the thermometer in the car had gotten up to 50. I wasn't sure how the day was going to go because Discovery Cove is all about swimming and I am all about being warm :-) Thank goodness for wet suits - I had a wonderful time and got some pictures that I really like. I apologize for putting them all up on picasa without editing... to see them click on Day 6 ~ Discovery Cove above ~ you just have to go through them and ignore some of them.
I started off in the ray pool where you stand and watch the rays swim around you. You can touch them if you want and if they come close enough - several did. This was the first time I put the new camera and the water and it did well for me.
Next I moved over to the coral reef pool with my mask and snorkel. Because I was focused (no pun intended) on taking pictures of the fish I didn't even think about the fact that I was snorkeling and it was easy. The wet suit certainly added buoyancy, it was hard to get my feet back down at times.
After circling the reef I moved ino the pool that feeds the tropical river - that water was the warmest. There is a gentle current that lets you drift slowly along, some people snorkeled as they went, some swam to go faster. A little way down the river you go through a waterfall (not happy to get my head wet because the wind made it cold, oh well) and that puts you into the aviary. I didn't walk through the avaiary - I was able to see so many birds from the river. I discovered that taking pictures while floating has it's challenges because it's hard to steady the camera.
After that I took a lunch break. Everything is included in your admission (except photos that they take). Then I sat in the sun and let the wet uit absorb some heat.
Next was my dolphin experience. After a brief orientation your group of 8 goes to the dolphin lagoon with 2 trainers (and 2 photopgraphers), there can be about 8 groups running at a time. It's all well organized. You wade out to about waist deep to meet your dolphin. You touch the dolphin, kiss the dolphin, feed the dolphin a fish, give the dolphin some hand signals to do some tricks, then you swim out and the dolphin tows you back towards the beach. You're in the water about 30 minutes. No jewelry or cameras are allowed because the dolphins might swallow them if they fall into the water so I wasn't able to take any pictures of the expereince. I stayed and watched the next groups to get pix of the 4 dolphins all jumping at the end.
Staying in Kissimmee tonight. It's a much nicer motel than last night.