Alright, we're skipping ahead to the night of March 30. The day of was pretty fantastic and we'll come back to that, but for now...We're in for a little more beach time. I was spending the week with my friend Shauna and we didn't have a lot planned because we mainly just wanted to hang out and CHAT in person. She got an email about a seal release that was happening and asked if I'd be game. Little did she know, my once-upon-a-time-marine-biologist-wannabe-self was ALL IN.
This particular seal was rescued off of the coast of New Hampshire and shipped up to MA to be rehabilitated. It came to them scrawny and injured and left fat and happy. I'm not really sure why it wasn't kept in NH or released there for that matter, but these are not the kinds of questions you take the time to ask when you're standing in a mob of people eagerly awaiting the moment a single seal crawls out of a dog crate and into the ocean.
We picked up Shauna's nephews and niece and made our way to the beach where we snagged a front row seat. We kept the kids entertained the best we could and before we knew it, Seal Diamond had arrived. The crowd parted and the ladies lugged the crate down a little closer to the water. This happened to be my very first time witnessing anything like this, but everyone else seemed to have done it before.
The seal came out of the crate right away and seemed to know just what to do. They had boards ready JUST in case, but he looked this way and that and then headed straight for the water. Within 3 minutes, he had completely disappeared.
We took the kids back to their house before heading back to Shauna's house to finish prepping for the spa night we were having for Hannah. On the way, we saw a rainbow. As the road twisted and turned and the trees came and went, we worked really hard to spot it over and over again. At one point Shauna's niece proudly exclaimed, "I can't see it anymore! It's CAMOFLAGED!!!" We all got a laugh out of that. She's TINY, but she has all kinds of words to say. The boys were pretty quiet. I had met them when they were little and I was surprised to find that their personalities really hadn't changed at all.
The seal release was a success. It was fun to reconnect with a side of myself that I usually keep tucked away living as far away from all things "marine" as I do.
What's something you wanted to be someday when you were a kid?
Have you ever witnessed a rescue animal's release back into the wild?
SEAL DIAMOND!? Bahahaha.
ReplyDeleteI love that you used to want to be a marine biologist. My 13-year-old cousin wants to be a MB so she can "prove that mermaids are real." But she doesn't think she'll need to move away from home, which is 3.5 hours to the closest beach haha. When I was younger I wanted to be an architect.
First of all, that's awesome you wanted to be a marine biologist. That sounds like THE MOST interesting job since I picture most scientists sitting inside a lab all day ;) And how cool they released a seal up there!!!
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