We put our life vests on and stepped into the chilly waters to get accustomed to our new dolphin (and a wholphin) friends. {The wholphin is a false killer whale and a dolphin, but we’re pretty sure it’s not the same as a porpoise.} Amy, the trainer, was amazing with the dolphins and her personality reminded me of Felicity Wood's free-spirit and energy. Plus, she called me Whit and I thought that was pretty cool (a lot of people are humored by seeing all of the little things that impress me).
Our first swim was the dorsal fin swim. We would sit in the deep end with our arms out straight and our body in a “T” position and then all of the sudden… WHOOSH! Here come the two sweet dolphins basically saying to you, “Come on! Come on for the ride! This will be so much fun!” …And it was. I was so afraid I would miss their fins but they wouldn’t let me miss them. In fact, they most certainly made sure we grabbed their fins.
Next was the foot push. We would lay in the pool with legs spread and arms forward, like a Superman pose. Once again, they swim up behind you without you basically even realizing what’s going on and WHOOSH!! They are pushing you up, like you’re soaring on water, with their noses! It was the craziest thing but so incredible. JD struck a Hulk Hogan pose when he was standing and I gave Aloha signs (but my push came to a fairly abrupt end because I thought my bottoms were falling off so I grabbed my bottoms and my balance faltered; thus, the absolutely horrendous but humorous photo of me below).
We then had a photo op with the sweet massive wholphin (a kiss and we got to “cradle” them for another pose). JD and I couldn’t decide between all of the photos so we just bought 8 out of the 10, plus the DVD. We had so much fun and we wanted to be able to look back on these moments to reminisce (and to show to our kids one day, of course). We wish we could post the video online, but it's encrypted or something like that. If you ever want to see it one day, we will be more than ecstatic to show it for your viewing pleasure. :)
The final part of the Swim included a nice goodbye back and belly rub to our new friend, and then a water fight between our group and the wholphin. This will be a day I will never forget. The best part about it is that I finally got to spend an entire day with JD, traveling around the gorgeous island of Oahu.
During our departure, we stopped at several scenic lookouts to take photos, videos and enjoy the moment. We were excited to see that JD received a text saying he doesn’t have to work tomorrow.
You know what that means… cage diving with sharks.
Wahoo! I know my fear will be heavily intense. I hope those sharks won’t smell my fear.
We made it back to the Hilton in time for a lovely dinner at Sergio’s again. That place is so good. We treated ourselves to coffee and tiramisu after our meal. I feel like we were somewhat jipped because the tiramisu portions we saw come out last Friday were much larger than the small portion our waiter brought us. It’s OK though. It was definitely worth it.
Our night concluded with JD replying to emails from work and with me downloading photos and videos, and writing in the travel journal. This will go down in history as one of our best trips ever. I had trouble falling to sleep. All I could think about was how thankful I was for JD and how thankful I was to be here with him. If it weren’t for his new job, we would not be able to travel like this. Well, at least not this early in our marriage, I’m sure.
Before we fell asleep, I promised JD that I would take him to Australia one day and that we would make a new list, a list that states our things to do in OUR lifetime. Let’s be honest, nothing is more fun than going places together.
