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For my birthday in August 2000, my friend Jessica and I went to Discovery Cove to swim with the Dolphins! This was a dream come true for me. I LOVE dolphins, and had always wanted to swim with them. Discovery Cove, Sea World had just opened that year...and we just knew we had to go.

The place was amazing!! You get checked in, and get your swim time, and cabana check in #. Then you are free to explore until your swim time. It ended up being kind of a cloudy, rainy day..but we made the most of it.

The Map of Discovery Cove (they did not hand out paper maps)

We had a pretty early swim time, so after exploring we checked in at our cabanna and listened to instructions about swimming with the dolphins, and watched a short video.

You should not wear any jewlrey, or bring any cameras in the water with you! Oh, and one other thing...the water is FREEZING!!!!!!!

As we s-l-o-w-l-y make our way into the water, our trainer is telling us about our dolphins. One of them is Max. Max is a movie star. He was one of the dolphins in Jaws III!!! And he is BIG! I didn't actually expect to be scared about swimming with the dolphins, but I was!! Since it was my birthday, I got to give a few commands to the dolphins! It was awsome.

 Then our small group (about 5-6) swam out a ways with the dolphins. We took turns swimming with them, and then one by one we were given a ride from the dolphins back to shore. IT WAS AWSOME!!! Total time swimming with the dolphins was only about 30 minutes, but it was so much fun!!

Afterwards, we spent the day around the park. We swam with the stingrays...ok, well....ran through the stingray pool is more like it!  Haha!! We actually stopped long enough to take ONE picture!

We snorkled some, and then went around many, many times on their version of the lazy river.

 We also spent some time just laying around and watching other groups swim with the dolphins.

 What a great, peaceful day!! Its a birthday I'll never forget!!!