'Splash Zone...'

So you probably already heard, that while following the Giants and Barry Bonds down the coast from San Francisco to LA to San Diego in his quest to become the all time home run leader, we took a break from the games for one night and went to San Diego's Sea World.

Yes, that's the night Bonds tied the all time HR record. We were sitting in Sea World watching Shamu, while Barry hit the 'big one' less than 5 miles away. It didn't bother me a bit.

Shamu was sensational !

Actually, we saw the dolphin show first and the craziest thing happened. This nice young family was picked from the crowd to participate in the show.

First, the mom, while being introduced to the crowd, stumbled and fell backward off the rock she was sitting on and almost ended up in the water. How clumsy and....how embarrassing....and how comical for the crowd.

Then the little boy, at the coaxing of the trainer, almost jumped in with the dolphins with all his clothing on and no life jacket. The trainer was noticeably shaken, as he said most kids shy away or even run when told to jump in. Anyway, he caught the little fellow and all was well. Really, the trainer just wanted the youngster to feed the dolphin some dead fish...which he did without flinching.

However, the trainer then suggested the boy wipe his fish slimy hands on his own shirt and pants. Which the boy did...and which the mom and dad caught on their cameras. The mom, however, leaned off the rocks too far and suddenly fell into the water to the horror and amazement of her husband, the Sea World staff and the crowd of more than 3,000.

Worse yet, the dad shouted that she couldn't swim....which was quite obvious while watching her flail in the water. Suddenly, like a bolt of lightning, a dolphin leaped out of the water right over the top of her. She looked horrified as the trainer and a couple of staff members tried to coax her to shore. Just when all appeared totally out of control and she was about to go under, a voice boomed from the PA system that she was a part of the show.


Linda and I, along with most of the crowd, had been completely fooled by this great performance.

Shamu Rocks ! was even more sensational...but I must tell you, when they tell you the first 13 rows are the 'Splash Zone', you should definitely believe them. Simply amazing how these huge whales can be trained to splash the spectators time and time again.


It sure was fun to watch from the 20th row !

(As always...to enlarge the photographs I've taken, simply double click on the image...then hit the back arrow at the top of the screen to get back into the blog. It's that easy.)

More on our West Coast travels in the next post.

By the way, there are still a few seats left on our travel-ography.com Duluth and North Shore Drive trip on September 28-29-30. Only $299 per person (based on double occ.). Quite a deal for the beautiful scenery we'll see from the comfort of a luxury motorcoach.

Steve