Dolphin Pictures!!!!

Ok, so I forgot to explain…the little market area that I posted a couple pics of the other day were from Sunday when we were walking around exploring. Apparently every Sunday, there is an outdoor market. It was neat!

Yesterday was amazing at dolphin therapy! Our girl participant was sooooo happy! She was absolutely all smiles and was even talking more than usual. Her mom said that she said “Bella jump up” on Wednesday, without prompting!!!! This came from a girl with very limited speech, who usually just says or repeats one word at a time. Amazing!!!

Julia and I took some dolphin pictures yesterday with their awesome, amazing cameras! We use $1600 cameras to take pictures of water sessions. They have amazing zooms!!! We had fun playing with them!

I got to push the button to lower and raise a huge platform for the trainers yesterday! They were practicing with Bella, to train her to swim up onto the stretcher. Nothing was wrong, they just practice so the dolphins don’t get upset if it is ever needed for real! It was fun to help and watch from up close though.

During the dolphin sessions, the interns don’t actually get to touch the dolphins, but we are seriously only a couple of feet away from them. We are standing on the docks, right by the action. It is awesome!!!!

Julia and I rode our bikes to the Key Largo park one evening and took some pics there too. It's a really neat park! It has 3 pools, basketball, tennis, volleyball, work out bars, and a cool little track surrounding it all. We had fun exploring and took some pics.

Fridays at IDC (Island Dolphin Care) are very different from Monday – Thursday schedules. On Fridays, the participants are able to free swim with a parent. There is no touching the dolphins, but everyone can swim around and use goggles so they can see them underwater and everything. It was really neat to watch! The little boy (he’s only 4) was way too cold, but the girl (she’s 12) loved it! It was only in the high 40’s this morning! Seriously, it is so cold here! I wore jeans, my only long sleeve shirt, my IDC intern shirt over that, and my only hoodie. I was seriously wearing every warm piece of clothing I have! And I was still freezing!!!! What is up with this weather???

This afternoon, we helped move tables and chairs to a park about 20 miles away. There is something tomorrow called “Woofstock.” It’s a fundraiser for an organization that rescues stray dogs and helps find temporary and permanent homes for them. It sounds really neat!