"I thought I would share this on the regular line, though it is more of a fun subject, with the hopes of sharing something lighter than we've shared the past few days.

"We have been concerned the past couple of months not about the encounter with the dolphins but about fitting into the provided wetsuits! The day of the encounter the temperature here was 99 degrees farenheit! When we got to the park we had a bit of a hike to get to the classroom part of our adventure. We heard facts about various marine mammals first. There were six who were in our encounter that day, five women and one man. All of us were on the weightier side with Deanna and I the largest of all. During the classroom session one of the guide/trainers for the day came in and said the schedule had gotten muddled up and we were to immediately put on our wet suits and get down to the place where the dolphins awaited us. As suspected Deanna and I had quite at tussle trying to get into our wetsuits and if it weren't for two of the women in the group we would have given up. They helped us struggle into them and get the wetsuit booties on. The guide peeked in and told us we had our wetsuits on backwards that the zippers went to the back side! We really wanted to give up then because of the time element but the same two ladies encouraged and helped us.

"Then it was the trek to the dolphin area...through the park in full view of people who were coming to the park to spend the day! I can tell you that the sight of the six of us with our guide in full wetsuit regalia helped us cut a wide swath as the attendees stared at us! At one point I called out to some of them that we were the latest Orcas to arrive at the park! The heat was really hard on all of us and we had to climb a good set of stairs to get to the area.

"The encounter was videotaped and photos were taken during it. For some of you who watch the Dr. Phil Show here in the States...I want to tell you about a few Dr. Phil "What were you thinking?" moments I had during the encounter! First of course...what were you thinking in doing this at all? What were you thinking as to wearing wetsuit in public view? And when the dolphins were given the signal to splash us...it was what were you thinking when you curled and styled your hair this morning...and the biggest one...what were you thinking when you put eye makeup on this morning???!!!!!

"We did a lot of things with the dolphins including petting them...putting our hand inside their mouth to feel teeth and tongue, listened to them "talk"...watched them do various tricks that the trainers gave them signals to do, posed with them, gave them commands ourselves and tossed balls into the water for them to retrieve and bring back to us. They totally splashed (almost drowned) us twice...and it was another not what were you thinking...but did you realize you would be in salt water which would burn your eyes and you would be given directions of things to do while you were trying to open your eyes!!

"One of the photos was to be with our arms under the dolphin while it lifted the front and back of its body and then you were to lift it up at the middle...we were warned that one of them...the one we posed with had a habit of trying to drag people off of the submerged platform during this pose....guess who he chose to do that to!!?? He didn't quite get me off the platform but nearly succeeded.

      

The potograph above (on left) shows Cody the Dolphin who cooperates for Deanna!  On the photograph below (on right) Cody tries to pull Susan off of the platform!

"After the encounter we were taken on stage at the dolphin arena to wave to the crowd assembling there for the first dolphin show of the day. We looked a sight...all of us! We finished the video off by telling what we liked the most about the encounter and then I sang my special version of Happy Birthday on the video for Deanna and two of the women who also received the encounter for their birthdays...although Deanna's was the only one right on that day. After that we trekked back through the crowds to the classroom area.

"We had a special treat that day! A female baby dolphin had been born just days before and the area was roped off to park attendees and the press hadn't been told about the new arrival yet. We were allowed to view the baby with its mother in a special tank near the classroom area.