Dolphins In Oregon

So we made it down past Salem to a remote area to check out the new baby - only 3 weeks old. Isabella is an absolute sweetheart, and we all felt the primal love right away. The only problem was missing her after we got back on the road.
On the drive home I thought about this one situation that happened in a bay off the Persian Gulf when I was a teenager. I had a classic summer job taking groups from the town out on a double-decker recreation boat, with the unfortunate name, “The Lollipop”. We lobbied to change it but it turned out it was registered that way – so we were stuck.
They let us use this great 4-wheel drive Fargo pickup truck, and we - me and this guy named Paul - would take turns heading down to the bay. When there was a group it was real work, but a lot of time we just screwed around. What a blast. The “Ship” had a 2-man crew, Captain Shaloof and Ahmed, who lived in a tent on shore. The bay had practically nothing on it but sand dunes for miles to see.
The best way to describe the job, was that after a long day of “work”, I’d often go home for dinner and then go right back.
We had a little outboard and one of my favorite things was to go out and swim with the dolphins. It was really incredible when you could feel the sonar hitting your guts and then an entire circle would surface at the same moment all around you. I love dolphins.
This one time we were underway with a group of employees from the oil company, but they weren’t doing anything dangerous: No scuba diving, etc…I noticed around 40 dolphins heading towards us, so Ahmed and I took the outboard out. I was sitting on the bow with my feet in the water and I’d have to lift them up so they wouldn’t hit their backs. They loved to surface right at the bow.
This was all standard fare, but on this day, things were different. The dolphins were all just going nuts. They didn’t jump like Sea World dolphins or anything, but I could tell they were excited. Excited? They were thrilled. Suddenly up ahead I saw around 5 or 6 dolphins going really slowly. We approached and there amongst them was a brand new baby dolphin around 2 or 3 feet long, with several big dolphins pushing it to the surface to breath. Other more excited dolphins would come close to look and be shooed away by the newborn’s guardians. There is probably nothing cuter than a panda cub, but this was damn close, with it’s little dolphin smile. Unbelievable.
I told Ahmed to turn the boat away. I never would have gone near if I had known what was going on. But it’s still there, burned into my memory - one of the most incredible sights I would see in my Arabian years.
Driving back Wednesday from near Corvallis, after checking out the new baby Isabella, we were pleased. It struck me: I was sitting in a car full of happy dolphins.