Visiting the world of Harry Potter was a fairly recent addition to my bucket list, but swimming with dolphins has been on the list for a long time. I even have a dolphin tattooed on my right hip, a mark I got after Aden was born to show myself how determined I was to have some independent existence and still do things that I loved. Yesterday I finally got to swim with a dolphin. Her name is Thelma and she is 22 years old. She's the mother of four and the grandmother of one, and she was magnificent. We had a short swim together, also a hug and a kiss, and I got to feed her a fish. I wish the ride could have been longer, but in all other ways the day was perfect.
Rob and I and the kids spent the day at Discovery Cove, an "all-inclusive" park themed on getting to swim with fish (and dolphins) and lounge in a Fiji-like atmosphere in the middle of Orlando. It was pricey, of course, but worth it. The whole family wetsuited up and lounged through the lazy river three or four times, drifting by otters in their glassed off enclave and emerging from the warm water to feed parrots and guinea fowl by hand in the aviary. We stepped over to the cold water pool to swim with rays and parrotfish, blue-black sailfish and sardines. William and I shivered our way past eels and sharks (in their glassed off pool) and delighted in the cavortings of a "special" turquoise parrotfish named Cher, who didn't know she was supposed to dislike humans.
But the most fun of all was the dolphin swim. We only paid for me to do it, so I felt a bit amiss among the two British families in my group who came with two children apiece. But as I got close to Thelma and then waved to Aden, watching faithfully across the lagoon, I felt pretty great. Thelma and the other girl dolphins were supposed to switch out midway through the interaction, but one of the younger girls, Dot, decided she didn't want to go back into the larger lagoon, and so the trainers kept all the girls out and Dot winged around the groups, picking and choosing which activities she wanted to do. The reliable Thelma was in great demand as the trainers calmly communicated which dolphin they had and which they needed. Our trainer, Chelsea, said that was always the most interesting part of their day. They can't force the dolphins to do anything, so they just work with their charges as best they can. When a little English girl named Caitlyn asked Chelsea how to become a trainer, she said "study psychology." I thought, hey - I'm a mother, I know all about this stuff - perhaps this could yet become my fifth career? Add that one to the bucket list.
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