To celebrate Nana's birthday this year, we went on a snorkel trip on the west side. We woke up super early, I popped a Dramamine, we all bundled up to stay warm for the windy ride, and we boarded our zodiac with wetsuits, goggles, etc.
Our first stop was in a small bay where there happened to be a pod of dolphins! So, our captain let us all slowly and calmly get into the water to see if the dolphins would be interested in us and sure enough, they came right over. In fact, they left and then came back to check us out 4 times! We snorkeled around for a bit there and then went to another location where all three of us saw a small reef shark!
Our captain then decided to take us out a bit away from land since we had a boat and we had time and after about 15 minutes, and a short nap for Gordy, we found a new pod of dolphins. We motored slowly around to see if the dolphins would find us interesting and boy did they! They were swimming around us on all sides, playing in our boat's wake, and showing off with aerials. After awhile, they decided that they were finished and they swam away. We realized that we were in 3,000 ft deep water, so a bunch of us all got in just see what swimming in that deep of water looked / felt like. It was incredible! The water was so clear and blue that it looked like it was glowing. It was also very humbling to be such a small human is such a big place.
After a few minutes of enjoying the emptiness, we heard squeaking noises that could only have been dolphins. We popped our heads up and the captain was pointing out a ways saying that the dolphins were on their back and were heading straight towards us. The next few minutes were some of the coolest that Gordy, Nana, and I have ever experienced - the dolphins came and danced/played around us for minutes. We all watched and listened to their incredible performance, and then... they said goodbye.
This was by far the coolest ocean animal experience I've ever had and Gordy talked about it for days afterwards.
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