Kim Dives the Georgia Aquarium
For Kim's birthday, Bill got Kim a ticket to dive in the world's largest fish tank: The Georgia Aquarium!
The dive happened today, Saturday, September 13th. The family arrived at the Aquarium at 2pm and were joined by Kim's parents, Patsy and Tommy and the West Family (Kristin, Brian and Jason). We all met up outside the Ocean Voyager exhibit, where Kim was whisked away by the Dive Master at 2:45pm.
Over the next hour, Kim was introduced to her four other dive buddies and given a "briefing" on the adventure ahead. We changed into our wetsuits and booties and were escorted to a dock where our gear awaited. The Aquarium Team had already assembled our masks, fins, gloves, tanks and BCD's. It was amazing! Once everyone was ready to go, we each did a forward roll into the water, gave the "ok" hand signal and headed towards the bottom of the tank. Unfortunately there wasn't enough weight on Kim's belt, so we had to work on that for about five minutes. Weight was added to Kim's waist and then...BOOM...she sank right to the bottom like a rock.
The first area we dove was only 20 feet deep and the visibility was over 100 feet...and no current! Nice! As soon as we all got down there, you could see the giant whale sharks floating above. It was awesome to see. They are called "Gentle Giants" for that reason! They just minded their own business and glided gracefully about the surface of the tank.
Meanwhile, the family was escorted to each window that the divers would pass by. Our first stop was the tunnel that leads to the exhibit. The divers all knelt on the bottom of the tank and waved to our families on the other side of the glass. Riley was FREAKING OUT! We're not sure if it's because he didn't understand what Mama was doing, or that he was scared and didn't know who this person was, looking at him and blowing bubbles out their mouth! Kim put her hand up to the glass and Riley put his up, too. Kim tried to get him to clap, but he would have none of that. The flash bulbs were going off left and right...you would have thought the paparazzi was there!
The dive team then got to swim around the tank and explore. Not only did we get to see the whale sharks (there were three of them), but we saw giant grouper, the new manta ray and a hammerhead shark. Unfortunately we were not allowed to touch any of the fish in the exhibit...and that was hard! Kim had a hard time not reaching out to feel the fish!
Another stop was the BIG window in the Ocean Voyager exhibit. The depth there was 30 feet. The dive team entertained the audience with rock, paper, scissors games and Kim even climbed the window like a mime and made faces at all the kids sitting in the front row! Larry tooks tons of video while Bill and Carol snapped photo after photo.
The dive only lasted a half hour. it was a VERY short half hour! At the end, Kim was EXHAUSTED. It had been about 8 years since her last dive and she was out of shape for sure.
It was an amazing experience...one Kim will never forget. You cannot explain how it feels to have an experience like this unless you do it yourself. How will we EVER top THIS birthday gift??