Day 3: Discovery Cove

Captivating kisses in captivity. Grabbing on to the dorsal fin of what feels like a giant, velvety muscle to be escorted through the water is as good as it looks on these Johnsons' faces. That said, I couldn't help feeling a little sad for the dolphins kept in these pools in pretty large numbers. My dad made a good point, though, when he said that anyone who comes here and listens to a dolphin chatter and chirrup and sees its constant beaming head is much more likely to try to help them out in terms of their conservation.













Here, the dolphins would all swim over to where they could peer at you - so interactive. As you stood there, they would raise their nozzles out of the water to splash you, forcing water over the glass edge. They did this over and over because they loved the reaction so thoroughly. Sometimes they would even do big, pounding splashes with their tails. Andrew and John kept trying the hand signals we had learned earlier from when we met Roxy, the dolphin. Sometimes it worked, most of the time they splashed and looked really tickled with themselves.







All in all, the creation of these micro-worlds - including a coral reef full of spotted eels and florescent fish to snorkel in, sand beaches, an aviary full of tropical birds and the extensive tropical fauna my mom and I are standing in above (all in land-locked Orlando, FL) - was A OK.