Tyler's Atlantis adventure day 4! - Dolphins at the Blue Lagoon (Week 120)

Bahamas Day 4.  Big day today - today was our Dolphin Encounter day!  Whoohoo!  SO excited to get up close and personal with dolphins!

We booked our Dolphin Encounters at the Blue Lagoon - a private island that is home to many dolphins and sea lions.  This is the Blue Lagoon that the movie "The Perfect Storm" is about - that storm actually split apart this island in half!  We needed to take a boat to the island, and luckily it was right across the street from Harborside (hence the name 'harborside')!

Here's Tyler taking some scenic pictures while we waited to board the boat.

The Dolphin Encounters boat!  We sat on the top level - I figured it would be more fun and have a better view.  True...except it was also super windy!  Tyler didn't like the windiness and bumpiness (we sat downstairs on the way back). 

The boat ride was about 20-25 minutes, and along the way we saw a lot of the super huge beach homes.  They are pretty incredible!

First thing when we got there, Will did the Dolphin Swim program.  I wasn't allowed to do it (no pregnant women allowed) so we watched instead.  It looked really fun!

Will got to pet and hug and dance with the dolphins.  Tyler was getting excited watching too!

Here's a video of the 'Swim' part of the Dolphin Swim.  Will is actually getting pushed through the water by two dolphins!:

Our 'Dolphin Encounter' program wasn't until later in the afternoon so we headed over to the private beach for some lunch and sun.  It was SO beautiful there, and very empty since it's a private beach.

We had a quick lunch (still a time sucker since it took away time for us to spend at the beautiful beach!) and then headed to play in the sand.  Tyler was very excited about playing in the sand - good thing we brought his own set of sand toys.  Also, our cooler full of iced drinks was great to have too!

Here's Tyler walking around in the water.  No fear!

Another one of my favorite pictures from the trip!

We were sad to have to leave and head back to do our Dolphin Encounter program.  It was so perfect and peaceful.

Time to meet the dolphins!  We had a group of people in our program, and (luckily) we were at the end of the line of people when it came to interacting with the dolphins.  This worked out great because it gave Tyler time to watch all the other people do different things and prepare himself for his turn.

The Dolphin Encounter program is like the Dolphin Swim except we're standing on a platform when we interact with the dolphins, and not actually in life jackets floating in the open water.  And, of course, we don't get to have the dolphins push us through the water at the end.  We managed to sneak Will into this program without having to pay the extra $85 fee.  SCORE! whoohoo!

Here's a photo of myself and Tyler when we're about to meet a dolphin.  You stand about waistdeep on a platform and the dolphins come up to you.

Family picture!  Here we had to bend down to our knees for the photo.  It took some time for them to get this photo since Tyler wasn't looking at the camera - he was very intensely watching the dolphin give me a kiss!

This is one of the funnier videos from the trip.  The dolphin had just given me a kiss, and I asked Tyler if he wanted one as well.  His immediate response was "no!" and to cover his mouth with his hands to block any potential dolphin kisses. heehee.

A dolphin hug photo!  It took Tyler a little time to warm up to actually pet the dolphin, but he eventually did - I was very proud of him.  There was a part where you could touch the sharp teeth of the dolphins (they're very well trained) but I kept Tyler from doing that.  It made me nervous!

And a special photo that they do for pregnant women - a dolphin baby belly kiss!  Haha, what a gimmick to get us to buy another overpriced photo!  (Hey, I'm a total sucker and got the ridiculously priced DVD too!!)

By the time the day ended we were pretty exhausted and worn out - Tyler knocked out on the boat ride as soon as we undocked!  We headed back to the hotel and everyone took a nice shower and some naps.  Then we decided last minute to head out to the Harborside Pool for a movie!

Tyler is very excited (always!) to push the elevator buttons. He'll press it and say... "not yet" until the elevator comes. heehee.

The movie next to the pool was seriously the PERFECT way to end the day.  We were practically in our pajamas already and just lounging in the poolside chairs watching "Hotel for Dogs" (great movie to keep Tyler entertained and none of us had seen it before).  There was a stand selling popcorn and nachos (yum) and I even had myself a virgin pina colada.  Yum!  Tyler really enjoyed being out at night and even dangled his feet into the pool (he wanted to go all the way in but we wouldn't let him).  Ahh, another awesome, wonderful day!