Swimming with the Dolphins

Today was the BIG day! The day I got to swim with the dolphins. I was nervous, excited, and anxious. I was a little nervous that I would end up being in the headlines of the newspaper "Killer Dolphin Killed Local San Diegan." Of course, it didn't help that Matt kept taunting me about it. I am proud to say that I came home with all my fingers and toes while having a blast!

I was able to interact with two different dolphins. The first is named Gracie. She's a Pacific Bottle nosed dolphin. The second is named Maggie and she's a Atlantic Bottle nosed Dolphin. The way to tell the difference is that Pacific Dolphins are darker in color almost black and bigger. They around 600 pounds up to 1000! While the Atlantic typically weighs about 400 to 600 lbs.

(Maggie- Atlantic Dolphin)

(Gracie- Pacific Dolphin)

Gracie was super excitable. At one point, she swam between me and the wall curling around me almost causing me to fall into the deeper water. The trainer says that they do this to get a closer look at people. That made my day. Later when the trainer brought Gracie out again she swam right up to me!

(Gracie nearly knocking me over!)

I was all smiles! I got to touch, pet, fed, even perform tricks with Gracie and Maggie. I was the most adventurous out of the bunch. I couldn't get enough of touching, petting, and interacting with them. Matt said after kissing that dolphin that I wasn't allowed to kiss him. What an amazing day!