A date with dolphins in the Florida Keys

When I was a kid I loved to watch the 1964 show Flipper in syndication. It is the one and only mental picture I have of the Florida Keys. So, when it came to planning our trip to the Florida Keys I wanted to make sure the boys had an up close with marine life experience, especially an opportunity to meet dolphins.

While swimming with the dolphins is romantic, and there are plenty of options in the Keys, it is also pricey at $100 or more per person for an encounter. With early swimmers, scuba and snorkeling are also out of the question. Other activities for small kids can also be at a shortage in the Keys -- other than beaches and swimming pools. And to be honest we had that in Hollywood, Fla.

Don't get me wrong. The Florida Keys are lovely, and well worth a visit. Yet may be more geared toward grown-ups -- snorkeling, followed by fruity cocktails, fresh fish and a live band ... fun.

I'm so glad that we discovered Theater of the Sea in Islamorada. I found it on Yelp (searching for "kid friendly activities" in the Florida Keys).  To be honest, other than glass bottom boats, snorkeling and scuba trips it was the only thing that came up. At first I was concerned by its 3.5 star rating. But the negative Nancys had issues with it being geared toward small children -- Hooray for us!

I actually think that they were wrong. It is not geared toward small children. But it is a throw-back, a nostalgic nod to a simpler time when little boys named Sandy and Bud could live on a marine refuge in Southern Florida.

Founded in 1942, Theater of the Sea is the second oldest marine wildlife show in the North America.  It does promote the "swimming with the dolphin experience." But I'd suggest bypassing the "programs" (what they call the swimming with the dolphin, sting ray or sea lion) line, and just buy tickets to the shows. They are so worth it. We got there early at 10 am with the intention to sit up front for each show -- which we did.

We started with the parrot show, followed by the dolphin show and concluding with the sea lion show. The parrot show, was probably the least exciting. Yet, I also think it was Xander's favorite. He loved the parrot tricks and he got to hold a parrot, and he still talks about that.
 
Jonathan and my mother in law headed to the dolphin show to secure seats upfront while the boys and I waited in line to hold a parrot. The dolphin show was a blast, and Xander got picked for the audience participation part. He got to pet a dolphin... which is pretty awesome.

Next was the sea lion show, which was really cute. There is something amazing about watching a sea lion balance a ball on its nose. We also sat up front for this show, and Caleb got chosen to play sea lion ring toss.

After we made the rounds of the shows, we went on a nature walk, took the short bottomless boat ride (where we got a short dolphin show in the center of the boat). And then headed to the beach, where you can feed large tropical blue fish. All in all we spent five hours at Theater of the Sea, and we had an amazing time. Seriously if you are looking for something fun to do with small children in the Florida Keys, Theater of the Sea is it.