Gulf Coast life

Ocean Adventures Marine Park

While Sweet T and Granddaddy were in town for Afton’s 3rd birthday, we made our first visit to a new local attraction: Ocean Adventures Marine Park! The new park is associated with the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies (IMMS), a non-profit organization dedication to conservation, research, and education related to marine mammals.

Ocean Adventures Marine Park Gulfport, Mississippi

Afton LOVED the dolphin show—she still talks about it!

dolphin show at Ocean Adventures Marine Park in Gulfport, MS

She sea lion show was super fun, too!

seal show at Ocean Adventures Marine Park in Gulfport

We got to feed the parakeets…

feeding parakeets at Tweeter Post - Ocean Adventures Marine Park Gulfport Mississippi

…and see some other beautiful birds, too!

bird show at Ocean Adventures Marine Park - Gulfport, MS

All these shows were very short and perfectly spaced, which was great for packing in a lot of education/entertainment to one visit and not exceeding the three-year-old’s attention span! We really enjoyed the ray pool as well—Afton loves anything that involves getting wet, and getting to touch rays was a fun bonus!

ray pool at Ocean Adventures Marine Park

There’s even a great playground to burn off some steam between activities…

little girl playing on playground at Ocean Adventures Marine Park

…and a train ride to the IMMS Discovery Center next door! There were some fun artifacts to explore in the small museum there. (Afton loves trains and remains extremely intrigued by the fact that this particular train did not need tracks! ;))

train ride to IMMS Discovery Center in Gulfport, MS

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and will definitely be back again!

family photo with mural at Ocean Adventures Marine Park in Gulfport, Mississippi

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family visit to Ocean Adventures Marine Park - fun things to do with family in Gulfport, Mississippi blog post