Orlando: Discovery Cove

Discovery Cove is one of the SeaWorld group of theme parks. It's a bit different to most parks though, your entry fee is inclusive of all food, wetsuits, snorkelling gear, and most significantly includes a dolphin interaction where you get to pat, kiss (yes!) and swim with a dolphin. This means daily attendance to the park is completely regulated - you have to book in advance and numbers are guaranteed to be manageable.

We weren't 100% sure about the ethics of swimming with dolphins. There's a lot of information on the web - mainly negative. Having done the experience I'm still none the wiser how the dolphins really feel, however our experience with Catalina (the dolphin), two trainers and a small group of 9 of us was quite special. In particular being towed through the lagoon holding on to a dolphin is unforgettable. Certainly the trainers are very careful during the encounter to manage the interaction to take care of the dolphins and minimise any risks to the humans.

Dolphin encounters in action. We had close ups of our experience taken by a pro photographer but weren't quite ready to fork over $100 plus for the evidence.

Other features in the park included a snorkelling lagoon swimming freely with various tropical fish and rays (including a monster with a wingspan wider than I (Eric) am long). There was also the obligatory heated lazy river and various animal exhibits.

Sam and Eric cruising the lazy river

Otter feeding time

Another one of the signature experiences are the aviaries where you can wander in at anytime and hand feed the various tropical birds, who are generally quite happy to perch on people holding a food bowl.

Note the excessive zinc on my face - to safeguard the animals we could only wear animal friendly sunscreen and plenty of it given the brutal sun

All in all it was a very interesting day.

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New York: National Museum of Mathematics

When we first came to New York we all wrote down where we wanted to go while we were here. All of us included the math museum (confirms our status as a family of total geeks) so that is where we headed today. On the way we went to the LEGO shop. There was plenty of great Lego art and some pretty cool sets that Samuel hadn't seen before. The best part was the machine that used a palm print to generate your Lego avatar. Eric: Check out the six pack. Not sure where they got the toupee from though. Samuel is Johnny Depp? Amazingly accurate this one. The famous Flatiron building A nd the math museum? Of course we enjoyed it! It was all interactive with loads of old and new problems to solve. We even got to use maths in an artistic way. Tessellating Samuel and Eric were most entranced by a floor exhibit which changed periodically but had a range of practical problems. The museum was well populated in the morning with ...

Santa Cruz

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Dining in Denpasar

A key part of any holiday experience is food. During the first week of our stay in Bali we had two nice and very contrasting dining experiences. Merah Putih is billed as the best Indonesian restaurant in Denpasar. It was just a few blocks from our Seminyak villa so we prebooked well ahead of time for a visit. The restaurant venue is very impressive - from the inside it looks a bit like a giant greenhouse, including the plants. The food was spectacular. While every dish was good, the Bak Pao Sapi (Beef steamed buns) and Semur Sapi (slow roasted beef cheek) were incredible. Then for Christmas Eve lunch we had booked at Starfish Bloo at W Bali, one of the swankiest Sunday Brunch venues on the island. Sunday brunch buffets are a signature Bali experience with many of the big international hotels putting on all you can eat extravaganzas once a week. Needless to say the meal was jaw dropping. We had a great table close to the beach where we enjoyed un...

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