Skip to main content

Sea Life Park Hawaii

Last week, our homeschool co-op took a trip to the Sea Life Park.

This is what homeschoolers look like in case you were wondering.


Because we had set it up as an educational field trip we were treated to a special talk given by one of the trainers at the park. She brought a Sea Lion right out in front of us. He was close enough that the kids on the front row could have reached out to touch him.

She advised them not to do that though.


She showed us how they had trained him to do tricks and gave us an educational talk about the care and feeding of Sea Lions and how they differ from Seals.



She then showed us how they train the dolphins to do tricks and talked about their care and feeding. The dolphins did some really cool things. They did all kinds of flips and threw balls around. All the kids near the tank got splashed and were really happy about it.

I wish I was a dolphin trainer. Or a dolphin.




Then they had two penguins waddle out and we were treated to an educational talk about them.

Katie asked me to take her picture in front of this gray wall.



We then got to watch the "Sting Ray Ballet". A scuba diver swam around in a tank full of many fish and sting rays. He hand fed the sting rays. It was really funny to watch him poke food right in their mouths. He even got one of them to give him a kiss!

There was a "petting zoo" where the kids got to pet Sea Cucumbers and a Sea Urchin.


One trainer held a turtle on her lap for all the kids to touch. We aren't allowed to get near them when we see them on the beach, so this was a new opportunity for everyone.


Then we went to see a dolphin show. This is always one of the most fun parts of a Sea Life Park. Dolphins are natural performers and are very entertaining to watch.

I once read a story about a trained dolphin who was accidentally released into the ocean when the wrong channels were left open into his tank and he was able to swim right out. They found him at three o'clock that day, performing his routine out in the ocean for a boat full of tourists.

In this dolphin show, one of the trainers rode on the back of a dolphin like he was a surfboard. Then he propelled her into the air and did a flip. Who wouldn't love a job like that?




They also had a Sea Lion "Beauty Pageant". We watched the Sea Lions perform in the talent competition. This was an adorable show! I loved it!

It was a hot day, and right behind the stands for the sea lion show, some sprinklers were in full gear watering the lawn. All the kids begged to be allowed to run through the sprinklers and we moms all shrugged and said, "Sure, why not?"


The we sat in the stands and pretended we didn't know them in case they got in trouble for playing in the sprinklers.



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ben's Feet

Ben went camping with his youth group this weekend. He said it was the best weekend he's had since we've been in Hawaii, and possibly in his entire life. The one negative part was that he stepped on some coral out in the water and cut his feet up pretty good. He swears it was all dead coral - you shouldn't touch live coral, much less walk on it because it damages the coral. No one ever mentions that it also damages your feet. They just tell you not to damage the coral. Also, coral is a living organism . If you step on live coral and a tiny piece breaks off in the cut, it will continue to grow. Did you see the movie Alien ? If some creature incubates in Ben's feet, then breaks out and eats us all one night, I'm going to be quite miffed. (Make sure you read the inscription on his tee shirt in this picture. It's quite appropriate.)
Post a Comment
Read more

Mammogram

I'm having my annual mammogram today. I always hear about how painful they are, but honestly, I've never thought they are that bad. Not the most comfortable, but not painful either. Every time I have a mammogram, I'm reminded of this story. It won the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition and I still get a kick out of it every time I read it. So I'm posting it here today for your reading pleasure: Erma Bombeck Writing Competition 1st place in Humor Category Winner Leigh Anne Jasheway of Eugene, Oregon "The First Time's Always the Worst" The first mammogram is the worst. Especially when the machine catches on fire. That's what happened to me. The technician, Gail, positioned me exactly as she wanted me (think a really complicated game of Twister - right hand on the blue, left shoulder on the yellow, right breast as far away as humanly possible from the rest of your body). Then she clamped the machine down so tight, I think my breast actually turned inside o...
1 comment
Read more

Japanese Fishing Shrine

Here's an interesting little spot we stopped to see. I'd passed this many times before and had never stopped to see what it was. Since GG and Sherry were here, we decided to check it out. There is a shrine of some sort with a statue and a carved rock. There was no information on sight as to what it is that I could find. There were flowers, food and incense left around the base of the shrine. There was a ceramic statue and a rock with a figure carved into it. None of the food was old or rotting (although plenty of it had clearly been pecked by birds) and the flowers were all fresh which made me think it must be cleaned and cared for on a regular basis. After we got home, I did some research and found this article about it from the Hawaii Star Bulletin, our local newspaper (I have edited out some bits, but otherwise the article is unchanged): "Maintenance" of the monument has been assumed by a group of Vietnamese Buddhists - Shingon Shu Hawaii, the Buddhist temple th...
2 comments
Read more