Mexico Day 14 - Dolphinaris

Well, we had promised Lucy a chance to swim with the dolphins while we were in Mexico, and she thought about it, talked about it, dreamed about it, and waited for it EVERY SINGLE DAY...since today was our last day, we HAD to make it happen.

Originally our plan was to go back to Puerto Aventuras and do a basic package with them. Dancing. Kissing. Hugging. About 45 minutes of time. But we decided to check out a place called Dolphinaris before we headed to Puerto Aventuras just to see what they had to offer too. Well, for only a bit (it was a good bit, but a bit) more money, the kids had the opportunity to spend up to 5 hours in the water with the dolphins, participating in many different activities, as well as watching videos on Dolphin mating, and conservation. It was a no-brainer. I opted to stay out of the water with Logan (since he was too young to participate) and take pictures.

It was utterly fantastic. There aren't a lot of face shots, because they're always facing the cameras that they have in the pools (you can buy the pictures afterwards), but I took over 200 pictures today. Here's a large highlight:

The idea was for Logan to take a nap at some point through this...but that just didn't happen. He was so disappointed that he didn't get to participate. He kept saying, "Mommy, my turn!" and then he'd ask me to put a life-jacket on him too.

One of the activities that we didn't participate in was the Dolphin painting. They strap a paintbrush to the dolphin's nose and they paint on a white t-shirt for you. We weren't prepared and didn't bring any t-shirts with us and chose to not spend the extra $20/person to do it. Lucy was disappointed and has already told me that next time we go, she's going to save her money so she can do the painting.

As we left, we went to check out the photos that they took and planned to buy them. Turns out they were $23 per photo or $350 for all of them. It was a LOT pricier than we thought it would be, so we opted to just get three. They're fantastic photos, so it's really too bad they were so expensive, but here they are.

Tyler doing the foot-push with the large male dolphin named Ricky

Lucy hugging Ricardo. Everyone was joking about how much Ricky Ricardo loved Lucy...he's even smiling in the photo. The feeling was definitely mutual.

Max hugging Ricardo too. Max was all about the adventure of the day and LOVED swimming with the dolphins.

Max ended the trip with a nap in the van...and in the house when he got home. He woke up with a fever and a headache, so while the rest of us headed to Chemuyil for pizza one last time, he stayed home with Grandma and played cards. He was happy to have a few slices of pizza when we got back though. We need to kick these fevers!

It's travel day tomorrow, so now we're packing everything up and getting organized to go home. So sad that our trip is over. We've had such a great time. When we were in the mix of all the sickness and throwing up, I definitely was feeling like I was ready to go home and sleep in my own bed...but now that that's happening, I don't want to leave. The only perk to going home is picking up the Hunger Games trilogy so I can finish reading!