CA Trip Part 3: Dolphins

Usually for the Fourth of July, our family finds some sort of parade and celebration to go be a part of.  We’ve seen a few small town parades and festivals and they never fail to entertain us and the boys.  This year, however, we decided to do something totally different.

Lots of people asked if we were going to visit Disneyland or some other amusement park while we were in California.  My standard answer was that I wasn’t going to pay the money to go someplace where I couldn’t ride the rides!  I love rides but being pregnant would have left me sitting out and that just wouldn’t do.  So, I found us a whale watching ride instead.

Captain Dave’s Whale Watching boat rides pretty much guaranteed you’d see dolphins … whales maybe, depending on the season.  I thought it sounded fun and the reviews were great so away we went.

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It was better than fun.  We had packed a picnic lunch and ate that at the beginning of our 2 1/2 hour cruise.  We were sitting at the very back of the ship because it was the only place with enough seats for all of us when we got aboard.  Billy was nervous.  There wasn’t much of a railing back there and he clung to the leg of my shorts as he ate his sandwich.  Kevin wasn’t all that comfortable with the littles being back there either.  I thought it was great – loved the wind and view!

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Plus it was right by the steering wheel – which was cool!  (it was locked into place, no fear of the boys steering us astray)…

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It wasn’t very long into the ride that I noticed some seats had opened up in the middle under the roof.  There were plastic sides there and I thought Billy might be more comfortable.  I was right.

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The front of the boat (I don’t know my ship terminology, sorry) had doors through which to access it and walk-ways around the edges to stand on and look out.  It also had netting for the floor in the middle that looked straight down to the water.  I guess our boat was actually a catamaran style and that is why the water was there, I don’t know.

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I wish I could have stood on the water and taken a picture of Ricky.  He stood at the prow (ha, boat word) and felt the spray and smiled non-stop.  He was “adopted” by some ladies and they kept him steady when Kevin was busy with the other boys.  I didn’t hang out up front too much … my balance is off in normal walking, so the boat was not helping me be steady on my feet.

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About half-way into our cruise time, the Captain kind of put us to drift.  We were surrounded by a pod of dolphins.  It looked like hundreds or thousands of common dolphins.  That kind of dolphin is smaller than the ones at Sea World but just as cool.

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There were baby dolphins and jumping dolphins!  They were jumping all around us!   The Captain and his photographer dude called it our Fourth of July Dolphin Firework Show and said they were never this active and we got a special treat.  Whether they were selling us on it or not, it was pretty stinkin’ amazing!  And the boys were enthralled …

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I’m pretty sure the motion of the water was soothing to Billy and Rusty …

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Kevin warmed up to the back of the boat …

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Ricky was still hanging out up front …  The ship was equipped with viewing pods down in the bottom front section.  You could climb down a ladder, lay on your belly, and be underwater in a glass walled room “swimming” right next to the dolphins.  It was very surreal and way better than Sea World!

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We floated among those dolphins for a good 45 minutes before we headed back.  On the way to shore we hit a pod of larger dolphins.  There weren’t as many and they weren’t as jumpy, but still very cool.

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As we came in to dock, we got to see pelicans … and sea lions!  There were about 3 of them hanging out on the rocks.  I think sea lions are cool!  The younger boys thought they looked like rocks.

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It was such a fun trip and totally worth doing again.  Happy Fourth of July to us!

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