Las Vegas's Secret Garden? Did you even know this existed? Want more unique travel ideas? Meet Melanie at Tough Love Travel - she's the travel designer you've been looking for!
You've heard of hatha yoga? hot yoga?
What about dolphin yoga?
I spent a morning with my 2 sons in Las Vegas' Secret Garden, the zen den of these cetaceans, so that I could decide for myself: do dolphins really add an endorphin rush to the yoga experience?
At the spa in the Mirage Casino, our $50pp entry fee got us a locker and personal escort, the yoga class with mat and water, a yummy post-workout smoothie, and all-day access to the spa's steam room, cool and hot jacuzzis, mediation rooms, and more.
Our yoga instructor Willow led us down to the Mirage's dolphin habitat, the famous Las Vegas Secret Garden -- a sprawling lagoon inspired and funded by Siegfried & Roy. Apparently their own near-death experience with the white tiger in 2003 had inspired them to create better conditions for captive animals, so these dolphins are home-based in Las Vegas' Secret Garden, on permanent retirement. They're never asked to perform by their round-the-clock caregivers who are schooled in both biology and psychology.
Tell me more about Las Vegas' Secret Garden...There are at least 4 dolphins in the Secret Garden, (one of the youngest is a male named Huf n Puf) and they all, old and young alike, showed undeniable curiosity as we rolled out our yoga mats and exhaled our first "ummm".
Are you saying right now....
I don't do yoga. So what about painting? Did you know that there are OTHER activities at Las Vegas' Secret Garden?
You can sign up for a joint painting program with the bottlenosers! Check it out right here!
Yoga class proceeded from downward dog through warrior, and while the dolphins seemed to lose interest, we humans had our curiosity peeked by random swim-bys across the tank's glass. I have been to yoga studios splattered in sunlight, and others filled with the buzz of jungle insects who crawled just feet off the pagoda. But this dim space at Las Vegas' Secret Garden, illuminated only with bluish glow from the tanks, so relaxed me that I often forgot I was in class and I let out a giggle as a dolphin's gaze met with my own as he floated by.
Did we experience a higher endorphin rush at Las Vegas' Secret Garden yoga?
Maybe? But the overall experience was one I'd highly recommend! Besides a great workout (not too tough for us vacationers), the serene space inside the spa is a most welcome retreat from the craziness of The Strip.
Balance, in Vegas, is much more than the crane pose, of course.
Tough Love Travel specializes in unique vacations.
If you can dream it, I can plan it!
For more info, call or write Melanie:
(609) 923-0304
melanie@toughlovetravel.com
No comments:
Post a Comment