Island of the Blue Dolphins

Daddy Jim blogging this morning. Please excuse the long post...

This morning Nick went out to the dock to watch the sea for the last time before heading home. He came back to the house and excitedly announced that he had been watching dolphins swim for the last ten minutes. We all walked out to the dock to see...dolphin(s) were surfacing occasionally then diving back down to feed about 300 yards north of us. I (Jim) ran as fast as I could to get my snorkel equipment, then plopped in the water and motored out there as fast as I could. Exhausted, I looked down at about 30 feet of water and there she was. A beautiful blue grey bottlenose dolphin looking up at me. She swam down and looked under a coral ledge for food, then circled below me to check me out. She turned upside down, swam around in another circle and then assumed a vertical orientation near the surface 5-10 feet in front of me. She was squalk talkin to me! She gracefully swam around a little more and popped out of the water for some air and then back down. She squealed a little more. I thought I'd give it a try and squealed back...it must have been insulting because my beautiful friend turned tail and swam off into the deep blue. I turned away and headed back to the dock with a smile. WOW.