Woke up at 8:00 and did not want to get out of bed. I managed to get up because I wanted to get to Sea Life Park early for my at 11:00. The bus ride was an hour through some random neighborhoods, and I did get there way too early. I sat on a bench and hung out for a while, then eventually I went inside and sat in the waiting area. It slowly filled up with people wearing blue wristbands; mine was silver indicating I was doing the Royal Swim. For a few minutes I thought I was the only one, but a family of three showed up and it turned out there was a Japanese woman doing the Royal Swim as well.
The Japanese woman hadn’t understood the instructions for people with silver wristbands to wait in the bleachers, so she had to be retrieved from the other group. Once she came back, we were all briefed on what was going to take place. We got in the water and started by just meeting and petting the dolphins, then doing our “kiss” poses; the two assigned to our group were Kaleo and Kekaimalu the – the world’s first dolphin/whale hybrid born in captivity. I got to swim out first for a double dorsal tow, which was great fun, you have to hold on really tight though because they are fast and they will leave you behind if you let go! As soon as I got back to the platform, I said “whoa, that was really cool!” The others all got to have their two rides – the other one was a foot push – and then I was last to have the foot push, which was also totally awesome. The three of us wiped out the first time but the trainer had everybody reset, and we did it again and it worked! I got a great ride, but I had my eyes closed when they snapped the picture. We did a few more playtime behaviors – spinning around, splashing the dolphins and having them splash us back, etc – and then it was time to say aloha. We waved our hands, the dolphins waved their tail flukes, and then we got out of the pool. All this cost $215 but it was so cool, and I’m only going to do this once in a lifetime, so I really wanted to do the best program they had!
I dried off, put my swimsuit in a bag, and got dressed. The dolphin show wasn’t due to start for 25 minutes or so, so I went to the gift shop to see if our video was being worked on. It was indeed, and I got to see a few peeks while they were editing it. I already knew I was going to buy everything they had to offer, but I wanted to see it being done! I paid $80 for the four photos and the DVD, and it was totally worth it. Somehow they made the pictures look good – although my dorsal tow picture was just a bunch of water in my face, so I got a picture of the foot push instead, but my eyes were closed – and the DVD turned out to be a lot of fun. The pictures are just me, and the DVD is the whole group, so I got to see the young boy (13?) refusing to give the dolphins fish, his mom nearly losing her shorts and letting go of the dorsal fins to grab them, and all of us spinning around in the water and being splashed by the dolphin. It was totally worth it.
I kept falling asleep on the bus ride back, so when I got back I grabbed the closest cheap food, ate it, and fell asleep. :A: woke me when she came in from work, but then she got into bed too and we both took a nap. We were eventually woken by the guy bringing :A:’s laundry back, and we went for dinner and a walk. We determined that along Kalakaua Ave, there is an ABC Store every 200 steps or less!
Tweets for Today
- i am so sleepy this morning. Brought my geography textbook for the hour bus ride, but too tired to open it. Maybe this afternoon.
- $80 for the pix and DVD of my $215 dolphin swim. WORTH IT!!
- The plight of a skinny chick: bikini bottom comes off during dolphin encounter. Me, the fat chick? Wearing a 1-piece, doing fine. Ha!
- Looking at mix-and-match swimwear, shopgirl says “we have it in D cups!” I said uh…I’m not a D cup. –
- Was trying stay awake till pix etc finish uploading but it is taking too long. Think wifi busy tonight. Going to sleep, hope it works out