Kisses from Luna

Since we got our season passes to Sea World last Saturday we have been going a lot. In fact we went every other day last week.

Monday we went with another couple and Nick had fun going on the "Steel Eel". I waited patiently on the side lines because I did not feel like getting sick that day. We also observed the dolphins ignoring everyone at the cove. It was a lot different than when we went on Saturday because there were a million more people since the weather was nice. The animals seemed tired and didn't want to interact anymore.

Wednesday Nick and I went by ourselves and spent time watching over the sea lions and trying to interact with the dolphins. We had the chance to chat with one of the ladies who works there and also has a degree in psychology. She said she would like to become a trainer and gave us some info about the fat sea lion that had been rescued by Sea World from the people who were going to have him killed. Turns out he was one of the Sea Lions that was eating all the salmon at the Bonneville dam. I had heard about them from my family since they live close to the dam. She said there were about ninety that they identified that were killing off the salmon so they were removed. Only nineteen were rescued though. So sad.

(You can see the fat guys head above the rock here. I will have to get a better picture next time we go because this does not do him justice- he is like three times the size of all the others! The lady said he is on a diet now because he only gets healthy lean fish instead of fatty Salmon)

The best day was Friday! Friday Nick was given part of the day off so we went again. We were able to go with two other couples and see all the shows again. It was great to see the shows because last Saturday when we went the shows were not that great. It was cold so they didn't do a lot of the water stuff and there were not very many people there so the trainers weren't able to get the crowd into it. Almost every show I saw was ten times better and they all did more flips and tricks for the audience. After "Viva" we went backstage to greet one of the dolphin trainers who is in our ward. It was so nice of her to show us around and answer all of our questions. She then offered to let us get a kiss from Luna the Beluga Whale.

These pacific white sided dolphins are also in the Viva show but they were on their break time so we didn't interact with them. They were really cute though and they know who the trainers are because they are always trying to splash them when they are by the pools. They are very playful and want lots of attention.

She was trying to get us to play with her and was watching us the entire time we were by her pool. She would splash and twist and turn in the water to get us to watch!