Aquatica and Discovery Cove

Our last day in Florida was spent at Aquatica and Discovery Cove. We went to Aquatica in the morning. This is a large water park located right across the street from Seaworld. They gave us a tour of the place before it opened and then let us go and have fun! They have two side-by-side wave pools...one slow, the other faster.....and both have beautiful white sand beaches.

We went on the lazy river and also on the "Raging River". The raging river was a blast!

This was probably the only slide I didn't go on. It looked a little too straight-downhill to me!

The children's area was unbelievable. There were more adults in the area than children.

I managed to go on almost every slide at Aquatica. I love water slides and could have stayed there all day. But it was time to go on to Discovery Cove.

Discovery Cove is not an amusement park - it is an all-inclusive day resort. The food, drink, towels, snorkels, sun-screen and fun are all included. I didn't take too many pictures.....I put my camera away in the locker they provided.

There were two cold-water pools - one for the manta rays and one for the coral reef. In the manta pool, you could just stand there and the beautiful mantas came up close enough for you to pat. In the coral reef, you could use the snorkel and mask they provide and swim around looking at the beautiful coral and the brightly colored fish.

They had a warm-water lagoon:

There was lots of places to get food and drink.

But their claim to fame is their "Swim with the Dolphins". This was a fabulous, once-in-a-lifetime experience for me.

First the trainer showed us how to make the dolphin do all kinds of tricks. Our dolphin's name was CJ. He was very friendly.

He let us pat him ..... and even kiss him.

And finally, we each got a chance to ride him from the deep water back to shore.

That concluded my time down in Florida. It was a whirlwind experience I'll never forget.

I noticed the beautiful green landscape as we left Florida:

And the colorful foliage of New England when we landed.