Saturdays Adventure's with Friends

This past Saturday a group of us interns decided to get together and go to Wiamanalo Beach which is right past Sea Life Park. We brought Shelly's dog Tilly and played out in the waves that were pretty big but soo much fun. I tried out my new snorkel mask and it's pretty decent for foodland quality :) I decided to take some video on my camera (not the kodak one that broke it is now on it's way to Indiana for repair) of the beautiful scenic drive to and from Sea Life Park. I also took a video of us on Wiamanalo Beach. After the beach we all went to get burgers in Hawaii Kai at Teddy's Burger joint where we met up with even more interns from the park and sat around talking for a few hours. I was talked into buying a Teddy's milkshake. I got pineapple flavor and it was Amazing!!! As always here are some pics and videos from the day.

Abby and I at Teddy's

Claire and Erin at Teddy's

Drive to and from Sea Life Park

Wimanalo Beach

Mini Adventures of the Week.

Well things are really starting to flow well at Cove. I am cleared on Dolphin ID's and taking dolphin respiration's. I also got to give my penguin lecture today to a bunch of school kids who were really excited and enthusiastic. On Monday and Tuesday I got to work gates for show, which is super important because we have to do it quickly and smoothly in order to keep our show on track and on time. I actually got to "play" with a dolphin yesterday. A trainer in cove, that is really cool, let me sit in with her on a training session with Nani who is one of my favorite dolphins, beside Kekaimalu our wolphin. I got to give Nani a back rub and give her an SD alongside the trainer (an SD is a visual or tactile signal that tells the dolphin to do a specific behavior) In my case I got to give Nani the SD to do her back flip...it was really cool!! Nani is the dolphin in the picture below. Another little adventure that happened this week was when Courtney and the other trainer Kaycie were picking me up from fish prep. We were driving past the front entrance to the park and we saw a female peacock come out of the bushes by the park entrance. We noticed it was limping and saw it had a hurt foot. So since we have a bird rehabilitation and sanctuary at Sea Life Park we decided we would try to catch it to get it help.....well 20 minutes later after climbing around in the bushes by the front entrance and getting some pretty weird looks from the visitors that were coming and going we thought we had it cornered Kaycie on the left side of the bushes coming through Courtney on the right side and me on the outside of the bushes. After all our hard work the peacock flew out over my head and landed on the roof of the building across from Sea Life. We just looked at it for a minute and then got our disheveled scratched up selves (from the bushes not the bird) in the car and drove home. We laughed about it later, but I doubt we will try a peacock rescue mission again anytime soon.

Nani. The youngest member of Dolphin Cove at 7 years old :)

A Suprise From Home

Ok, so I was having kind of a bad day, and just wasn't really in a good mood. But when I walked in the house I saw flowers on the kitchen table addressed to me. That wonderful fiance of mine decided to send me a bouquet of the flowers we are going to use in our wedding with a sweet card saying how much he misses me and loves me. The flowers made my day, and made me feel so happy and loved.

Hanauma Bay Trip

Aloha Everyone!! I just wanted to say that cause I realized I hadn't yet in my blog. Well the Hanauma Bay trip did happen on Sunday with my Cove friends Abby and Erin. We went snorkeling in the bay and it was Amazing!!! I've never seen so many colorful fish with my own eyes before in my life, it was beautiful there. Unfortunately I have no video from the trip because my new Kodak Playsport waterproof camera has a defect where the first time I try to charge it (which I did right before we went to Hanauma Bay) it doesn't charge and completely shuts down. Courtney, my roommate is going to take it with her when she and Kaycie, the other trainer I live with, go to pearl city on Wednesday because there is a Target store there and I bought the stupid camera from the Target at home 3 weeks ago!!! Anyway the trip was still amazing and me and the girls plan to go back a few more times before we leave. I really want to see a wild sea turtle in the bay. Here are some pictures from our trip.

Abby and I getting out of the water as gracefully as possible when wearing snorkeling gear :) 

Chinamans Wall

This past Saturday Catlin the old intern decided to show me and Courtney a cool surfer spot in Hawaii Kai called Chinamans Wall. Today some of my fellow Cove friends and I are going to hang out and probably head over to Hanauma Bay :) The pictures and video are from the Saturday trip to China Wall.

Me and Roommate Courtney

I know I'm a Dork but I love seeing the lava flow formations that made Hawaii. The ones at Chinamans Wall are Amazing!!!

China Wall Hawaii

Adventures on my First Weekend Off

Well I made it. I worked at the park 11 days straight before I got my first off days (this is extremely uncommon there was just a schedule shift that really messed up my days off). So Saturday I just took my sweet time to move into my room (pictures of my room will be posted later since my roommate is moving in and its just really unorganized right now). Sunday me and the trainer I live with, Shelly, and her husband and one of the old Spring 2011 interns at Sea Life Park took a trip up to North Shore. We ate at something called a shrimp truck, literally shrimp cooked and served out of these very hippie looking vans, but apparently that is a big part of visiting North Shore is to eat at one of the shrimp trucks and I have to admit it was really good. We decided to go to Waimea Bay and just spend the day laying out on the beach. The big thing to do on Waimea Bay beach is jump off this huge 25ft rock that is in the bay. Shelly and Catlin did it, but I learned my lesson the last time I thought it would be fun to jump off something much smaller than this rock. It was a nice relaxing day at the beach just like it should be here in Hawaii. When we left the beach we went by a somewhat famous shaved ice place on the North Shore called Matsumoto's it's famous not only for having some of the best shaved ice I've ever tasted but also because Matsumoto's is a favorite and frequent stop for Tom Hanks, Adam Sandler, and Jack Johnson when they are on Ohau. We ended the day by eating in Waikiki at the Cheesecake Factory. I'd never eaten there before but it was amazing and the variety of food you could choose from was insane, not to mention the piece of strawberry cheesecake I got was out of this world. The following are just some fun pictures from the weekend and a video of Shelly and Catlin jumping off the rock.

Waimea Bay Jump

The Animal Mix

Hey guys the first time I uploaded this video the quality was really bad. So I decided to try again. These are just various shots I got from different shows throughout the park during our orientation days.

All On Our Own

Well guys the time has come for us new interns to step up. Today was the old interns last day and even though I finally have two days off (Saturday and Sunday) I know when I go back that it's showtime. No more old interns to hold our hand and help us out. It's all up to us now. Let's show 'em what we got Summer 2011 interns! Good music in Fish House today, of all the things I thought I would be doing while listening to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana sorting capelin fish was never one of them :) Oh well just another fascinating experience in this internship. The video is a collection of highlights from the show I will be participating in called the Cove Dolphin Show.

Welcome to the Fish House

Well today was my first day in Fish House, as you could probably figure out it is the house where we sort all of the fish. The fish come in from the freezer in 20-30lb blocks the night before and they are thaw controlled throughout the night in the fish house. It is pretty cold and very wet in there because we use hoses to finish thawing the fish and then to wash literally the entire room after the fish is sorted (including walls and doors scrubbed with soap and washed thoroughly with hoses). Right now I am only cleared on sorting capelin. We only use the males because the females being filled with eggs could cause problems throughout the day by bursting and such. So there I am in fish house hosing and sorting and singing along to a spring intern from England's ipod shuffle when low and behold I got a throw back to my middle school days. The next song that came up on the speakers was none other than "Bring the House Down" from my all time favorite band S Club 7. It was surreal to say the least, but it put me in a really good mood. One good thing about coming into work at the Fish House at 6am was that Sea Life gives you a free breakfast. Today was pancakes :). The rest of the day went pretty much the same set up for sea lion feeds, scrub buckets, watch the 12:30 dolphin show, scrub buckets, observe gating procedures......and scrub buckets. It's really not that bad but there is a lot of cleaning involved. Got a few more pictures to add today. One is just me killing time getting ready this morning and the others are of the amazing view I get to look at everyday!!!  My first day off is this coming Saturday...it will be nice to be able to relax and be on a Hawaiian beach, which is something I have been too busy to do so far.

The First Two Days

These last two days have been crazy. I am in the Cove area at the park and it is a super fast paced place to be. I've learned a lot about the dolphins in cove including their names and species and a few of their ages. I've also learned about gating or "moving around" the dolphins for shows and what all is involved in basic care and health needs for these animals. Besides all that I am well on my way to learning the names and identifications of the 11 sea lions in the cove area, all the while trying to take in the scheduling and proper cleaning and logistical procedures involved in working at cove. It is by no means an easy area to work in, but I know I am learning from some of the best in the world and it can be very rewarding and fun if I just put in the time and effort to soak up everything and make the most of my 14 weeks here, which I fully intend to do. All my house-mates are amazing and some of the coolest people I know. Right now I am sleeping on an air mattress that sits on top of a futon until the old interns move out but its not bad there's just a lot my stuff that isn't as organized and easily accessible as I would like right now. I just got back from the Aloha party at the park. Since Aloha means "hello" and "goodbye" in Hawaiian it was a party saying goodbye to the old interns and hello to us new ones coming in. I've gotten to know a few of the old interns and it will be a little sad to see them leave. The park gave them leis and allowed the old interns to take a professional photo with their favorite animal in their area. I am enjoying Hawaii soo much!! The scenery I get to look at everyday is literally breath taking! This summer is going to be so cool.

And So It Begins

The orientation is done!! I have learned so much in two days but I am ready to start the actual work experience tomorrow. In the words of Spongebob "I'm Ready I'm Ready" :)

Aloha from my new Island Home

Well I did it...I got up this morning at 3am Alabama time and left my small town life for a summer in Oahu Hawaii. I said my sad goodbyes to my mom and fiancee and walked behind the TSA check point...with my Tri-beta Bio-hazard shirt on, which I now realize is probably not the best thing to wear when one is spending all day walking around various airports. The flight from Huntsville to Dallas was good, although I'm pretty sure the guy beside me was getting motion sickness. Then a 4 hour lay over in Dallas where I simply walked around in various shops and had a nice lunch at Bennigins. It was kinda lonely and kinda scary to know that I was that far away from anyone I knew if something happened, but at the same time it was a level of independence I have never felt before, it was odd but cool. Then came what I am told was only an 8 hour plane ride although to me it felt like I was on there for double that time. It probably didn't help that I got a seat in the center of the plane scrunched in between three other rows of people on either side, and the one movie I was actually interested in watching on the plane was Shrek and it was in Spanish!!! I landed in Honolulu at 4:20pm Hawaii time so add five hours to that to get Alabama time and as I am writing this right now it is 10:30pm Hawaii time so again add 5 hours and you'll see how long I have been awake. I am living with a couple of really cool trainers in Hawaii Kai. The first day of the internship starts Tuesday!!!  This trip has taught this shireling so much already but like Bilbo said "The Road Goes Ever On and On". My traveling is done but my adventure is just beginning. 

The following pictures are various views from the condo I am living in:

This last picture is just a really cool hand painted sign that the trainer I'm living with has up by the TV. It is a bunch of different painted images that spell the word "Aloha"