Dolphin Encounter

Sydney has been saying that she wants to be a dolphin trainer for quite a while now.  Then, the movie "Dolphin Tale" came out a few months ago. (Great movie, by the way!)  She was hooked even more!  She just loved the dolphin named Winter that lives in Clearwater, Florida.  Matt discovered that he had a trade show to go to in Tampa, which is close to Clearwater, so we decided that she had to go see Winter.  You weren't able to get in the water with Winter, but you could get in with Panama.  Winter was in the water right next to us.  We had paid for two of us to swim, so I decided I would like to try it.  I wanted to back out several times.  I wasn't sure I would like it at all.  Fish totally gross me out and it was freezing that day.  But, I was brave and did it anyway.  They had wetsuits for us to wear and putting that on was a treat, let me tell ya!  Ask Matt sometime how I got that stupid thing on.  Lol!  It was all worth it in the end.  Dolphins are pretty sweet. They actually seem pretty happy, loving, and obedient!  It didn't seem gross to me at all, and Sydney loved every second of it!!

Sydney was so excited for this day to come!

That smile on her face says it all.

The trainer had us do the signals to make Panama do different tricks.

She seems like such a happy dolphin!

And we made her splash at the end.  We got pretty wet and it was cold that day!

Sydney with the trainer.