Dolphin Cruise

Even though it was an overcast, windy day we decided to brave the elements and hit the open seas! The captain of our boat, the Southern Rose, guaranteed that we would see dolphins during our two hour cruise. I thought this was an awfully ambitious guarantee, but figured he knew what he was doing. So, off we went!

We were first taken into the Gulf. The captain said that he didn't have much luck finding dolphin in the Gulf, but we'd see. We were only about 40 minutes into the cruise when we came upon about six or seven dolphin! One of them was a baby. They teased us quite a bit as they would come close to the surface, but not come up. Then they would go back and forth under the boat, so all of us were racing from side to side - it's a wonder the boat didn't flip! We stayed out in the Gulf for about an hour and then headed back to the bay off of Orange Beach.

Once in the bay, it wasn't long before we saw another pod of dolphin - about eight of them! These were a little more playful, coming right at the boat and up out of the water. None of them ever did a "Flipper" move - you know standing up on its tail - but we did get to see their faces. As we turned to head back to dock, the dolphins raced along side of us. That was cool. A few minutes later, after we thought we had left the dolphins, the captain shouted that they were following us and to go to the back of the boat. There they were - coming so close to the boat we felt we could reach down and touch them! That was a great way to end the day.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a lot of good pictures of the dolphins. They are just too darn fast and my camera wasn't! I did get a bunch of great shots of the water!!!! But, I won't bore you with those. During the cruise we passed a private island called, Ono Island, which consists of million dollar homes. One of them is owned by Kenny Stabler, former quarterback of the Oakland Raiders. The boat houses of these homes is probably worth more than anything we could afford!

We had a great day. Met some new folks and ended up going out to dinner to celebrate one of the guys' birthdays! This life is just wonderful. We are having a ball!

Going to dinner tonight at the clubhouse for the beginning of the park's Mardi Gras festivities. Won't have a lot to post over the next couple of days as we don't have plans to do much. Take care.