Dolphins, fish and food, food, food

Easter Sunday!  Americans are not really into Easter eggs.  When we went to the supermarket, I forgot to get some Easter Eggs and then, when I went shopping yesterday, I couldn't find any.  So I bought the kids some American candy - Skittles, M&Ms, bubble gum, giant suckers and Now and Laters.  When the alarm went off this morning, I jumped out of bed and hid the candy around the hotel room.  Ali woke up properly while I was putting some M&Ms in the microwave and she thought that I was going to melt them (for breakfast??!!)  Then the penny dropped and Luke, who normally takes about 15 mins to poke his head out from under the duvet, was out of bed and fully awake!  So we had a little Easter American candy hunt to start the day off with a real sugar burst!

 

Today was our Discovery Cove day.  I had been to the hotel reception to find out the best way to get there and they said we should order a cab which will cost over $50!   It's only about 7 miles down the road so that seemed excessive.  Darling Google helped me out and we caught the #8 Lynx bus which took us right to the DC entrance for a tenth of the price of a cab.  We'll be using Lynx a lot.  While we were waiting at the bus stop, this guy walked passed us and we all had a good laugh because when we said "good morning", it was clearly evident that he wasn't all that excited about the day of work ahead of him.

 

 

I've got very convenient amnesia when it comes to how much things cost.  I booked our DC day months ago and I don't have a clue how much it cost but I'm pretty sure it was worth every penny!  We had a really great day.  It started out with a monster breakfast (all food - breakfast, lunch and snacks, were included in the package).  We had ham and eggs, yoghurt and fruit, croissants, danishes, milk and fruit juice - the works (in addition to all the candy we'd consumed en route!)  The food felt as if it was for free (due to my amnesia), so we really took full advantage of it.  The snack cabanas had crisps, pretzels, ice cream sandwiches, strawberry ice lollies, slush puppy, sodas, chewy bars - we ate all of it.  Ali and Luke had 4 ice creams each (I had 3 - they were good!)  For the rest of the holiday, we've been sharing snacks to keep to our budget but today there was none of that.  And we had a proper lunch complete with rice and chicken, fries, caesar salad (I loved the caesar salads here - I think I've ordered one every day), fruit salad, chocolate brownies.  And I put 3 oranges and 3 snack bars in my bag for tomorrow.  Yes - we were PIGS!!!  Back to Ensure and frugality tomorrow.

 

OK - enough about the food.  I don't even want to know how much weight I've put on but I'm sure it will drop off when I get back into my normal routine of eating basic healthy food.   And don't worry, Lis - the food has been difficult but I really have made a huge effort to try and get some nutrients into Luke and Ali and I haven't allowed them to overdose on sugar (except for today, but it's Easter!)

 

So, first we got kitted out in our wetsuits.

 

And we put on sun cream which was supplied by DC because it's not harmful to the sea life.  It was like gluing on a layer of plastic.  Luke did not enjoy it.

 

Then we got into their coral reef pool.  Oh my goodness - it was like swimming in a fish tank!  We had goggles and snorkels and as soon as we got into the water, there were about 3 rays swimming right under us.  It was amazing.  I was so intrigued by all the beautiful fishes - their glorious colours and peaceful manner.  We swam into the deeper water and it was feeding time, so we were completely surrounded by fish.  After about 20 mins or so, I realised that Ali wasn't with Luke and I.  I looked around and couldn't see her.  Eventually I got out of the water and found her with our stuff near the sun beds.  She was scared of the rays and had missed the whole thing!!!  I felt terrible that I hadn't taken her by the hand and made sure that she was there with us.  We had to get the lady at the snack bar to persuade her that these sting rays couldn't sting - only then would she go back in the water.  Funny girl - did she really think that they'd let about 100 people swim in a tank full of stinging sting rays!!!  Anyway - she did get in and absolutely loved it and, by the end of the day, she even reached down to touch a ray. 

 

My camera isn't waterproof so there are no pictures I'm afraid.  And nor are they pictures of the next adventure - certainly one of the big highlights of the trip so far. 

 

I had booked a swim with a dolphin as a special Easter treat.  I knew that Luke would love the roller coasters and I was concerned that Ali wouldn't but I know how much she loves animals so the dolphin swim was her thing.  I didn't realise that she would turn out into such an adrenalin junkie and love the roller coasters just as much as Luke.  And Luke loved today just as much as Ali.  So it's all just a whole lot of great.

 

Anyway - back to the dolphin swim.  Our 'slot' was 10:30 and off we headed to the sea horse cabana to be guided to the dolphin swim area.  After a briefing and a video, we waded to a section of the pool where our guide met us and then introduced us to Rose - our dolphin.  Rose was AMAZING!  She came right up close so that we could all stroke her on her back behind her blowhole.  Her skin was silky and spongy.  On our hand signals, she showed us a flipper, showed us her tail, rolled over onto her back, made a farting noise, clapped her fins, waved goodbye etc etc.  All rewarded by sardines obviously.  Then we took it in turns to swim out into the deeper water and Rose came out and stopped next to us. Then we held on to her with one hand on the dorsal fin and the other hand on the pectoral fin and she swam about 10 meters pulling us along.  It was really incredible.  What training!  It takes about 4 years to train each dolphin and there are over 30 dolphins at DC.

 

Mum, I'm sure you're appalled and I don't want to Google Discovery Cove because I'm sure I'll find all sorts of negativity about how commercial it is and there will be animal rights activists out there that are trying to shut the place down I'm sure.  But Luke and Ali absolutely loved it and Rose seemed quite happy.  It was an amazing experience. 

 

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of our encounter with Rose.  There were photographers around, but the pictures were super expensive.  There was a guy sitting on a rock taking some pictures on his iPad because his family was in our group.  So I asked him to take some pictures of us too and he said he'd email them to me.  I haven't received anything from him yet, but if I do, I'll post some pics.  We did, however, get a picture of another bunch of people during their dolphin encounter through a glass window they had.  Not a great picture, but you can see the dolphin in front of them.

 

 

After the dolphin swim, we went in their fresh water stream where we glided along in the current for an hour or so.  There were no fish and the water was chlorinated so it was really just a big swimming pool, but it was fun.

 

Then we spent the rest of the afternoon in the coral reef pool watching the fish. 

 

I also have to mention the bathroom facilities.  There was a wall of shelves filled with fresh towels that didn't ever get empty.  Dad would have loved it.  We didn't have to use soggy towels at all.  The showers were hot and had Crabtree and Evelyn shampoo, conditioner, body wash and lotion.  I got cold after a while in the coral reef pool, so I went and had a warm shower, dried off with a fluffy warm towel and then put on a new dry wetsuit - what luxury!  Sandy VH, you'll have a fit to know that each of us must have used about 4 towels during the day!

 

 

 

We left at about 5 or so and got the bus back to the hotel and now the kids are reading and we'll go to sleep soon.

 

Tomorrow, we're going to get a bus to the west coast of Florida to go to Busch gardens.  Back to more roller coasters and, I fear, very long queues.  I have a sneaky suspicion that tomorrow's going to be the worst day for queues, so I'm just going to have to take lots of deep breaths.