I am absolutely, utterly and completely, exhausted right now. Normally this is not a good thing, but today it is incredible and entirely acceptable. I have just lived through, and experienced, one of the best days of my life. Please excuse any spelling mistakes you may find, but my mind is flying faster than my fingers can keep up, and I just have to get this out, while everything is fresh, and in the proper chronological order. There will be a wee bit of backtracking, just to give a little background info, but not too much, I promise.

I live outside Edmonton, AB, as most of you know, and one of our biggest attractions has to be West Edmonton Mall. You name it, and you can do it at WEM. It is the largest mall in North America, and boasts pirate ships, casinos, theatres, amusement park, water park, restaurants, bungee jumping, and a zillion other things to amaze and astound! I will put that into perspective for you folks in a few minute, but suffice to say, there is something for everyone. One of my grandson’s favourite things to do, is to visit the Sealife Caverns, to see and touch many aquatic creatures, and on a trip there, last fall, while waiting in line to pay, I picked up a brochure offering the opportunity to be a Sea Lion Trainer for a Day! Very exciting! Very intriguing! Very EXPENSIVE! I was instantly curious, and the idea definitely appealed to me, so I asked for that to be my only Christmas present. I was a little disappointed when I got other things, last year, but then promptly forgot about it. You can well imagine my surprise, and delight when my birthday rolled around in June, and that was what I got as a gift! I jumped up and down and squealed like I was four!

For quite some time, my job got crazy and intense and stressful, and I kept putting off setting myself up with a date to use this incredible certificate. This past Wednesday, I took the plunge, and called to book my day. Today, was that day! I thought I came prepared, bringing everything I could need, but I was entirely UNprepared for the magnitude and scope of this experience. A very dear friend once suggested to me, that money is better spent on experiences than material goodies, and he is undeniably correct. The memories I made today, are priceless, precious, and once in a lifetime, each and every one. What I thought was going to be a morning with sea lions and an afternoon with penguins, was that, and a million times more. I “met” a ton of cool creatures, including the fabulous staff, I interacted with, one on one, all day….9:30-3:30.

I was met at the gate by Erin, who took me downstairs, and behind the scenes at Sealife Caverns. WOW, what an impressive labirynthe of twists and turns, hallways, and tanks. I never knew that they had as many animals off display, as they do on display. Snakes, and turtles, giant sting rays and the biggest catfish a person could ever dream of seeing, just to mention a few. After learning all the do’s and don’t’s, doing all the paperwork, and signing all the waivers, we grabbed my attire for the first part of the excursion, a wetsuit and rubber booties. Well, hanging with sea lions was a first time for me, but I was also a wetsuit virgin! I have to say one word: TIGHT! It was quite the endevour to get INTO a dry wetsuit, I have to tell you. I have to admit, when I got into 15 degree water, I was quite grateful to have the insulation, but getting in it was an ordeal.

After suiting up, my next step was to be introduced to Kristina and Amanda. Kristina was to be in the water with me and Amanda was running the show. I also had my first introduction to Kelpie, a 16 year old, 200 pound female, Californian sea lion, and eventually, a 600 pound male, named Pablo. I learned a lot about these creatures, as I got to interact with them, and watch them go through all kinds of training, with their handlers. Who would have thought that sea lions enjoy having their teeth brushed, and being “massaged”? I was amazed at the grace, gentleness, and strength, of these beautiful animals. When Pablo pulled me around the pool, the muscles in his tail totally astounded me. He dragged me along behind him like I was ragdoll! To say I was thrilled, would be an enormous understatement. Getting kisses and hugs from, and learning training hand gestures and commands, for these creatures, was one thing, but to actually get in their pool, and have the ride of a lifetime, was overwhelming. I am so grateful that there was a camera handy through every minute of this experience, and the girls were amazing at capturing just the moments I would have wanted them to catch.

After my swim, a quick shower, to rinse off the salt, and a change into my “Trainer for the Day” t-shirt, I met up with Chelsea, to start the penguin prtion of my day. At WEM, they have 22 African penguins, in their enclosure. 11 of them, were hatched at the facility, and Dayo, a three year old male, was the youngest of them. Chelsea basically has been handling him since he was hatched. Penguins are very territorial, and become very attached to their handlers. When the door opened, Chelsea was able to call some of them by name, and they reacted to their name, by looking at her, and often time squawking at her. Funny thing about them knowing their names…..penguin gender is not discernible, until they reach sexual maturity, at about three years of age, so they have some great females named Sid, Big Guy, and Doug! I suggested maybe they choose names that can be either, like Charlie, or Pat or Sam.

I got to spend about an hour with Dayo. I held him, and patted him, gave him some scratches. Peguin feathers are so incredibly silky, and their beaks are the exact opposite! I learned this when my nose got just a wee bit too close to Dayo, and he gave me a poke! The highlight was, of course, when his little flippers got dipped in fingerpaint, and he ran back and forth across a canvas, painting me a lovely picture, I now need to get framed and hung. Watching him with his handler was quite awesome as well. He literally vibrated and shook, squawking up a storm, when he was across her arm and she was talking to him. Anyone who feels sorry for animals in captivity, should really spend a day watching how well these animals are treated. African penguins are on the endangered species list. At the begin of the last century there were millions of these personable little birds, however, mostly due to us, as humans, they have been reduced to only 22,000 pairs….in THE WORLD! Chelsea equated this to me, but telling me that more people walk through the mall on a Saturday, then there are these creatures. It is sad to think about, but facilities such as the one at WEM, take fertilized eggs and reintroduce them into the wild, by sneaking them into nests of breeding pairs, in their natural habitats. I learned so much, about all the creatures I was introduced to, that I felt like this little sponge, as I tried to soak it all in. The staff is truly amazing.

After lunch, I managed to hold a milk snake, named Skim, which is quite a clever name. I held a turtle, of the varity, I can’t rightly remember, and hung out with an even larger turtle, who followed us throughout his enclosure, like a very slow, very tough skinned puppy. I got to get up close and personal with so many incredible creatures. I even got to be involved in the actual show. The sea lions do two shows a day during the week and three on the weekends and holidays. I got to get up and shake it with Pablo, giving him the signals required to make him dance. You haven’t danced until your partner is a 600 pound sea lion, although he did rather smell of fish. Speaking of fish, they eat restaurant quality food, and everything used to prepare or store their food, is disinfected by the same standard. I got to do some of that stuff too, including stuffing herring with vitamins, for the shark feeding. I was priviledged to handfeed 300 pound sea turtles, brothers named Mini and Blue. Pablo’s tail is muscular, but the power in the jaws of these massives guys, was awe inspiring! It was quite easy to think that they could have pulled me around their world quite easily as well, but I kind of need air! These turtles can actually spend up to five hours under water, without coming up for a breath. They were getting very impatient waiting to have their feed of the fish and squid, at showtime too. They literally tried to climb up out of the water, on to the platform we were standing on, waiting for our cue, to throw all the goodies in for them, and the ten nurse sharks, and two black-tipped reef sharks that inhabit this massive tank. Donatello, is the third sea turtle, who also lives there. He is a thirty year old male, where the other two are only about 17 years of age. The puffer fish always makes me laugh, and he can be quite elusive to find, except when there is a ton of fish, shellfish, and squid dropping into the water!

The day was so full of adventure, fun, and learning, that it is truly going to be something I will absolutely never forget. If you ever have the opportunity to live this experience, I highly recommend it! I can not say enough about the cleanliness of the facility, the knowledge of the trainers, handlers, and entire staff, and the beauty and character of all the animals I encountered. I feel blessed, amazed, astounded, and so grateful to have lived this adventure, that I am seriously considering finding time to volunteer there, so I can relive, at least a portion of it, on a more regular basis….they also tend to hire from their volunteers….hmmmmmmmmmm food for thought!!!! Career change????