Day 4–Gulf World

After our morning on the beach we grabbed a quick bite to eat and met Aunt J at Gulf World.  She had offered to take us there for K’s birthday.  All I knew was that it was an aquarium attraction and it was only two blocks from our hotel.  I was totally impressed! It was a miniature SeaWorld!

I am not a huge fan of crowds (yeah, I know, I had to get over that for Disney) so I was really happy to find that they had all the fun of Seaworld in a very un-crowded, relaxed atmosphere.  It was perfect for the girls!

Here’s T and the girls admiring the flamingos on the way to the Magic show.  I was surprised how a lot of the animals were just roaming free.  We could have reached out and grabbed these guys if we’d tried.

After the Magic show we went to watch a trainer feed the turtle and sharks in one tank.  This turtle was HUGE!  She doesn’t look that big in this picture but I think the guy said she was over 400 pounds.  There were four or five sharks in this tank and the trainer said that when he gets in he doesn’t have to worry about the sharks, it’s the turtle that always tries to bite him. :)

Boo wanted to see what was in this area and it was Manarays!  They had been de-stingified (yes I’m sure that’s the proper term:) so you could touch them.  They were actually pretty friendly too and would come over to you.

Bug was afraid at first but after Daddy touched one she got a little braver.

She would reach out and then right when she was about to touch it she would pull her arm back so I don’t think she ever actually got one.

We stopped to look at the turtles next.  I got this guy mid-yawn.  It looks like he’s talking to us. :)

The girls were both brave enough to touch the sand turtles.

With a little help from Daddy. :)

If I remember right, the sign said that sand turtles don’t need any water because they get all their water out of their food.  I thought that was really interesting!

Next up was the Sea Lion show.  It’s amazing all the things they teach these animals to do!  They had a cute little routine where she would ask him stuff and then he would answer with motions. 

Bug was very impressed with Duke, the Sea Lion!

They told us that they are practicing for their first inter-species show.  Apparently dolphins and sea lions do not interact in the wild so they have been slowly training them to work together.  Here they are showing off a few of their moves.

Here’s a little video of some of the dolphin tricks.  The girls loved it!

Aunt J and the girls at the show.

K liked Duke, the Sea Lion so much that when they said you could have your picture taken with him she asked if she could.  I didn’t think she would actually be brave enough but Aunt J bought her the ticket to do it and she walked right up there, sat perfectly still, and let him kiss her cheek!  So cute!

After Duke there was a bird show so we went to sit down in the cool theater.  It wasn’t that hot out, but very humid (to us).  We Northwesterners are not used to the humidity! 

The main trainer in this show was a guy that has worked on lots of TV shows and he showed us a lot of the tricks they use to get animals to do stuff in the scenes.  I thought this one was neat.  The bird flew through two hoops and then flew suspended in the air with the help of a wind machine.  They said they use a green screen to put whatever scene they want up and the bird flies with the wind machine to stay in the right spot.  Pretty cool!

He also had a really cute dog who could do all sorts of fun tricks with hand commands only since they have to be quiet on the set.  I thought the best one was when the dog took a letter, opened the mailbox, put the letter in, closed the mailbox and used his nose to put up the little red flag.  Too funny!

After that show we got a snack and went into the main bird room.  They had some really beautiful birds!  They were so big and colorful.

This bird was doing a funny dance for Boo and Aunt J where we he bobbed his head in a swinging motion back and forth.  It was cute.

Boo really liked the different colored birds.

T and I thought this bird looked just like Rio!

After the birds we headed over to the big dolphin show.  It was so great!  The trainers had the dolphins do all sorts of tricks and then they jumped in and did tricks with them!  I was very impressed!  Here’s a short clip of a few tricks.

Gulf World was so much fun!  We loved it!  Thanks so much for taking us there Aunt J!