Since I started out with the horrors of our vacation, I suppose I should pick it up a bit with the highlite of it: Discovery Cove! We rescheduled it for later in the week because George was sick, which really was a blessing in disguise for 2 reasons!! The first being that when we rescheduled it, the reservation guy surprised me with a refund of over $50 because the "fare" was lower for the day we rescheduled it!! AND....once we got to Discovery Cove and had our quick "orientation" talk, they let us all know that it should be a great day...not only because the weather was *perfect*, but also because they were booked at LESS than HALF capacity, so there wouldn't be very many people in the "park"!!! As it is, they restrict the number of people so it's never crowded, but this was really nice as literally, it was DEAD there!
We checked in just after 8am, and they gave George and Koda a dolphin swim time of somewhere around 10:30 (I think!). You have to be 6 (or at least LOOK like you're at least 6!) years old to do the swim, and no pregnant ladies could do it either, so Brayden was my little buddy for that part of the day! We walked over and got our wetsuits.....which was interesting in itself. I wasn't so sure that I'd be able to squeeze my belly into a wetsuit, but the ladies there assured me that it could happen. After all, George pointed out, look at some of the guys with big beer guts....not much different than a preggo belly! Thanks, honey.They look at me up and down, and then give me 2 to go try on. I get into the dressing room, take a look at them, and realize that they're both regular women's sizes....XS and S. Seriously, an XS??? I try to squeeze into it anyways because, hey.....they should know their stuff.....they do this everyday. It wouldn't even fit over my thighs. I manage to get the size S over my belly and zipped up, and really, it wasn't too bad. I was comforted by the sounds coming from the other dressing rooms....grunts and such of other women trying to get their butts into the suits as well! :)
We started out trying to get Koda to snorkel in the "reef" they have there, but he kept complaining that the water was too cold. Seriously, the pool at the AK Club here at home is much, much colder. He was just being a wuss. So then we venture over to the stingray area, and again, he complains he's cold. It's like 90 degrees outside, sun beating down on us, wetsuits on, and he's cold?? Then we realize his wetsuit is a tad too big on him....it's kinda hanging off of him. So George takes him to switch it out, and they guy takes one look at Koda and says "looks like he needs a much smaller suit"!! Duh. They gave him a suit like 2 or 3 sizes smaller, and worked like a charm. Koda still wouldn't actually swim in the colder water, but he did enjoy the stingrays, even getting the courage to try touching them after a while!
George and I had done Stingray City in the Caribbean (just a big sandbar out in the middle of the ocean that is famous for stingrays!), so we were pretty comfortable around them. Probably the coolest thing about the rays was that they had a baby ray born just a few hours before opening that morning, and he was swimming around as well. Too darn cute! I'd say it was only around 6" or 7" wide at his "wings".....he was always the one Koda was looking for in the ray area!
The next thing was Koda and George's dolphin time. Koda had SO been looking forward to this since we watched an episode of Kate Plus 8 (where they were at Discovery Cove) and he discovered that the dolphins there would make a farting sound when you pressed the "imaginary" button inbetween their eyes. Literally, it was the first thing Koda tried. HILARIOUS! Here he and George is giving some love to their dolphin:
And even though technically Brayden and I weren't supposed to be in the water with the dolphins, the trainer snuck us in to get a family picture :)
The other really cool thing at Discovery Cove was their aviary. There were three different sections, all with different types of birds. While we didn't realize it, the first area we were in was the one with the largest birds, and they would almost swarm you (because we had bird food). They were very tame and gentle, but Brady wanted nothing to do with them. He literally freaked out, screaming and crying...which only occasionally caused the birds to fly away! It really was pretty funny!! After a while, Brady would tolerate birds landing on George (who was carrying him), but only if they landed on the opposite arm or shoulder from where he was!
Koda, George, and I LOVED, loved, loved the aviary! These birds were amazing, and it was such a cool experience!
Here's a quick picture gallery of Brady's day:
All suited up and ready to go!
Not much of a fan of the water....and it was literally the temperature of bath water! Sooooo warm!
This pretty much was the highlite of his day. Nice and cozy and sleeping in the stroller!
He's also not a fan of sand.
Brady finally zonked out with George in the water. Once Koda and I got back (from around the lazy river), they were both submerged in the water by the waterfall, and George and I switched out with Brady. I propped myself against the rocks next to the waterfall with Brayden, and *almost* fell asleep myself! It was heaven!!!
One of the other really, REALLY nice things was that Discovery Cove was all inclusive. That meant no $14 or $15 parking (like Disney, Seaworld, etc), and food was included! And it was GOOD food! Breakfast was great, but lunch was even better! Koda especially enjoyed it because they had all three of his favorite foods: Mac-n-cheese, grilled salmon, and chocolate cake. For him, the only thing missing was halibut! They also had great little snack shacks around the park, which was great. They had lemonade and cherry slushies, which was Brady's favorite thing (besides sleeping) of the day!
The Discovery Cove day was literally the best day of the trip. We had such a great time, and although it was also the most expensive part of the trip, I don't think we'd have traded it for anything! Well worth the money!!!
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