2025 me here: Video and photos are gone unfortunately.
I had the last three days off and for a change, took advantage completely. Today was swimming in lake Huron, swinging on swings and reading at a surprisingly beautiful beach. Yesterday was mini-putt, go-karts, dinner, drinking, candy and the Devil’s Backbone with a friend. I won’t be in contact with him anymore soon. Tuesday was the most fun though.
As I was getting off of work Monday night, I decided to ask the incoming guard, Bob, if he had any advice on how to enjoy spending the day at Marineland. I realized how much of a mistake this was as the question slipped out. Bob is the most depressing man on earth. I might as well have been asking him to suck as much joy as possible out of me. So in his slow monotone voice, he droned on awhile about how he enjoyed the experience much more when he was younger. Then he basically repeated six different ways that the park was meant for kids and Merle and I wouldn’t enjoy it. I asked him if we would be able to touch any of the animals. “No, just the kids who get picked out of the audience during the shows.”
Luckily I’m blessed/cursed with a very childish girlfriend and we really did enjoy ourselves there. Growing up, Merle often went to the Boston aquarium and saw the marine show where the animals perform. At some point in the show, the trainer picks out a little kid from the audience to come down for some interaction with the animal. Merle always wanted this bad but was never picked. So for the past few years, she’s been obsessed with going to Marineland to touch the beluga whales.
I have mixed feelings about places like Marineland (and zoos, for that matter). I don’t like seeing animals in small enclosed, artificial habitats. I understand that it does raise awareness though. So as long as the conditions are humane, I can deal with it. I felt worst for the orcas because I know they can swim enormous distances daily and are intelligent, social animals. Keeping them in captivity is so unnatural.
Anyway, Marineland has two performance shows. One is a small, straight forward one, where a walrus and some sea lions do modest tricks. Despite Merle’s frantic hand waving, a small kid was chosen to hug the walrus. The larger, second show features the park’s best performers. Sea Lions balancing things, walrus tricks, flipping and dancing dolphins. When it came time to choose an audience member, Merle got up and enthusiastically started jumping up and down, hands in the air, and screaming. And out of the hundreds of audience members and little kids, she was chosen. I captured most of it on video here (12.1 MB). She got to touch and feed a beluga too. I’m happy for her. Here is another video of the big male Orca, I make a brief appearance at the 26 second mark (6.2 MB). (Be patient if you download them, they’re coming off of my home computer).
My favorite picture of the day. I was the only one in the area and was waving, and calling out like a nut to get this beluga interested enough to pop out of the water long enough for a photo. I’m sure he/she was genuinely amused.
A miserable looking orca not doing much beside a gate. This was depressing to watch.
A Bear.
And some deer.
The Ancient Undergrad 
A dear and a deer butt, to be exact.
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I love swings. Bob must have had some truly horrendous experiences; I feel sorry for him. Merle looks so happy! You look so cute! Good times, except for the orcas. Poor orcas.
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woah, your brave to post that about your girlfriend… wait till she reads that and you might get smacked in the back of the head.. lol.. It looks interesting. Reminds me of Sea World without the land animals. You took great pictures. From what I understand, people who work at amusment parks or parks, are not very happy people… oh lord, I had friends that used to work at Disneyland….
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I’m one of those who has boycotted Marineland. Evil place. I knew people who worked there and they saw how horribly they treat the animals. Every year six of those bears are killed by other bears. They are all high on marshmellows… ’cause marshmellows, that people can feed to them, are bears natural food that they love to forage for. *rolls eyes*
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man the devils backbone was helluva tight movie man
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Damn! I waited for about five minutes for the video to download, and then it wouldn’t play. I’m off work today and will have to watch in when I’m back to the work PC on Monday. Great pictures, anyway. Good for Merle! You must be her lucky charm, heh.
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1) Can’t believe you read all that down to 18. I looked at it all again and it’s probably boring to everyone else but me. Still a fun exercize to do. It made me see some patterns. (Who favorite days were with, where they were, what the weather was like) etc.
2) I meant to post this link for you. It’s a post about being “arrested” at Sea World by a friend of mine in Texas. You may or may not appreciate it. http://www.xanga.com/item.aspx?user=slowmo_d_o&tab=weblogs&uid=121871483
3) Like cinnamongirl, I tried to view the movie, but it wouldn’t play. Thanks for trying to post it though. Like CaliHawaiiGirl I do wonder if sometime she’ll see your page…then I guess your going-back-and-forth-on-the-issue days will be over with for good.
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i may sound like a drag, but i agree with the more negative of your “mixed emotions”. there’s not much justice in humanity coercively exploiting other beings for their own entertainment. here’s a relevant song from travis morrison it’s called, “song for the orca”.
http://www.travismorrison.com/mp3/travis_morrison-song_for_the_orca.mp3
for what it’s worth, i enjoyed your pictures. also, i can totally relate to having the “blessing/curse” of a “childish” woman in my life. god help us.
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I used DivX for the video to keep the size small with decent quality. If it doesn’t play you need this:Download DivX Codec. It’s likely you’ll have it if you occasiohnally download and play videos. If not, installing it won’t do anything harmful. No configuration should be needed either.
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is it true that dolphins are extremely, ummm…horny, most of the time? that’s what i was told, but i’m not sure if my guillibility was being poked at or not…:)
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I have truly missed the oppertunity of reading about your life daily… or a least almost. I smiled through most of this post, (as usual) and I realize I have some catching up to do.
The Orca, such an amazing animal, there is something so majestic and royal about them. They are incredible creatures both in mind and body! they amaze me with their resilance.
So is Boston looking like a reality. Maybe I will find up in my JJ homeowrk files…
Good night
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worst grammer ever <<>>
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RYC: It use to be marshmellows. At least they’re using Cornpops… which, I guess, is a wee bit better… kinda… It’s still too much sugar! I was good friends with a dolphin trainer there and then a roommate of mine worked there too. She quit pretty quickly.
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