A Dip with the Dolphins

Friday morning I left the snow for the sunny land of Hawaii.  The second I got off the plane I turned to my Dad and asked if we could swim with dolphins this week, something that I have wanted to do since I was a little girl.  To my surprise my Dad said ok.  After further discussion (and a few Google searches later) we decided that we weren’t just going to do you typical swimming pool dolphin encounter.  So Monday morning my family and I got up before the sun and headed over to a boat dock where we and eight other people boarded a boat that looked like more of a gimpy life raft than an actual boat. 

Once aboard our vessel we got fitted with scuba equipment then headed out to sea.  We went further and further out until we saw them, dolphins bobbing up and down in the distance.  The boat got as close as it could and then the captain of our life raft said, “Ok jump out”.  So out we went into the unknown of the ocean.  I learned that dolphins eat at night so in the morning they are slower than usual because they are full and getting ready to go to sleep.  Even once they got to sleep they still keep half of their brain awake at all times.  Because of this they were swimming in circle like formations when we met up with them.  So I would be sitting in the middle of the ocean and then all of the sudden there would be thirty dolphins (at times probably more) bellow, to the left, and right of me.  Some would even jump out of the ocean and flip.  I would swim with them until then out swam me (they are freakin fast even when half asleep) and then I would wait a bit and back they were.  The dolphins would get two feet away from me.   It was awesome absolutely awesome.  A day that I will definitely never forget.