Dophins and manatees, oh my!

There were no less than 207 pics on Wednesday.  I tried to whittle them down to the best ones.  Enjoy!

Fueled by juevos rancheros burritos and fresh pineapple,
we were ready to start a day of adventures :)

Nothing like a dolphin smile to start your day.

High flying back dive!

Well, hello there :)

A dolphin's tail is like our fingerprint; no two are the same.

Very nice, ladies!

There wasn't even a session going on, Gypsy just wanted to show herself :)

HOT LAP!!!

Jax and AJ- you can always tell which one is Jax, as he was a rescue
dolphin after being attacked by a shark. Part of his dorsal fin is missing.

Santini is showing off his high flying moves :)

Tursi was chittering as she jumped- adorable.

AJ was tail walking.

Jax was showing off his back dive :)

I would love to be a dolphin trainer for a day-
I had better save all my pennies, and then some.

Jax got in a splash fight, but then AJ joined in to

help him, much to the suprise of the guests, lol 

This fella wanted a piece of the action...

waving hello :)



They look like they have so much fun jumping :)



Stephanie is getting briefed before her meet and greet with Aleeta.


The trainer gives Aleeta the command...


Stephanie's smile pretty much says it all :)

We also saw Kilo the sea lion who is not yet full grown-
he only weighs 535 lbs so far.


And then there's Karen, who blindly swims in circles in the sea lion
lagoon.  They created a special program just for her, called "Hug a
Sea Lion", as she is so responsive to her sense of touch.  She's a
big sweetie, and I'm not saying that because we share the same name. 


All in all, it was a great day at the Dolphin Research Center, and then...

...a great day was made even better when a manatee came
cruising by Marquesa.  I've never seen Stephanie scramble so fast
trying to grab her camera and get out of the boat, lol!

She was a thirsty girl...she's holding the piling with her flippers :)

She got all kinds of back scratches.

Aww...God love it.  So sweet.  *sniff*

It's safe to say that Steph was pretty excited about it!

When she had her fill, she cruised on out the Gulf of Mexico...

And then it was Willis' turn for a backscratch and belly rub.  Dern cat.