Interacting with a dolphin

My older sister has wanted to "swim with dolphins" for her whole life. At Sea World they let you "interact" with a dolphin and she decided that was close enough. And even though I had swam with a dolphin in a past life while on a cruise (the whole 'dolphin licking' incident that some of you may have heard about), I decided to join in.

Here is a picture of the interaction area as we were waiting to be called in. Turns out the trainer we'd get paired with is the one on the top - Mary. (Odd coincidence that we got the red-head, huh? No matter what I do, can't seem to get away from red heads.)



The only thing more fun than trying to get in and out of a wet suit? Trying to get yourself in and out of a wetsuit while also helping your two nephews get in and out of their wetsuits. It was quite the adventure. After a brief lesson and a not-so-brief prying yourself into a wetsuit session, we got split up and got to meat our trainer (Mary) and our dolphin (Ripley). Ripley was quite the ham...she was a squeaker! We got to do some signals as a group:








(Admit it, that is pretty darn cool!)

And then took our turns doing individual signals. I got to throw the fishing line out there (ignore the fact that Ripley is watching Mary and not me...I hadn't casted yet...oh well, at the time it felt like I was doing it!):


and reel her back in (see, Ripley was watching me at that point!):



We got to play relay and run her back and forth to each other with Ripley acting as the baton:



And we all got to have a splashing competition with her:

Trust me on this one -- don't get into a splashing competition with a dolphin, even if you have them outnumbered 5 to 1.





We all took a turn doing a glamour shot and kissing her:



And a group shot to end with:



All-in-all, it was a very unique and memorable event. Was it worth the money or freezing your cajones off in the really-really-really cold water and losing a splash-off with a dolphin? Probably. Since you can't really put a price on playing with a dolphin and after a while your teeth stop chattering.

As for my sister, she got to have her dream come true and hang out with a dolphin for a while...so how can you say it's not worthwhile? It was definitely a "live over" day -- you know a day that you want to live over and over.