swimming with (the?) manatees

For xmas my dad and step-mom took Stefan, Aneta, and me swimming with manatees. (I always want to say "the" manatees, but I can't figure out why it should be "the" except that it sounds better and for some reason that's not good enough. I'll say "the" from now on because it feels right.) The manatee place was a few hours from their house so we got up between 3 and 3:30, and headed out in the dark.
It was slow going at first, cuz my step-mom can't see well in the dark and so she insists on driving when it's dark (that sentence was written correctly). During a large part of the drive we played this game called "Inky Pinky". You think of two rhyming words and a descriptive phrase to go with them and the other people try to guess the words. An apropos example would be, "sea cow cleanliness" whose answer would be "manatee sanity".
Eventually we got the the proper city, had breakfast and embarked on "Captain Mike's Ultimate Manatee Tour." There were about 20-30 people there. They gave everyone wet suits, masks, and snorkels. My dad brought his own wet suit because "only my piss has been in it". Considering his remarks I figured it was best to not go commando and so I wore a pair of boxers under the wet suit (I'm sure I would have done this anyway, but the comment was fresh in my mind nonetheless). When everyone was wet suited up we watched a video about proper manatee etiquette. The basic idea is "don't under any circumstances harass the manatees. They can harass you, but you'll get fined or thrown in jail if you screw with them. But have fun with the manatees :)."
The manatee swimmers were split between two different boats. Our boat had our family and a group of people who apparently lived at Stonehenge. Well, when we asked where they were from their response was, "You know where Stonehenge is?" Seems an odd place to live, but to each his own.
We stopped early because the driver found cuddles and another manatee that was apparently very friendly. My dad was somehow the first in the water and cuddles immediately came up to him. It made me laugh because this manatee was apparently too friendly. My dad couldn't get the manatee far enough away from him to take a picture of the manatee with his underwater camera. He had choice words for the manatee and his friendliness, but I'll refrain from using them.
Eventually the rest of us got in and my family got to play with cuddles while the other people played with the other manatee. Cuddles was so cool. He loved being petted and he'd roll over in the water so that you could rub his belly.
Eventually I got really cold and was shaking somewhat violently in the water so I figured it was time to get out. My dad was already out and so he came over to help me with my wet suit. He unzipped the back and started pulling on my wet suit. I was thinking maybe he'd do like all the cool kids do and pull the wet suit down to my waist. Nope, he just keep going on past my waist. As I mentioned earlier though, I wasn't wearing shorts I was at least wearing something, which was a plus. So there I was in the middle of 15-20 people in only my underwear. This could make for an embarrassing situation. It really just made me laugh (inside), but surprisingly it really didn't bother me. A) I didn't know these people except my family and I don't care if they see me in my boxers. B) I really don't care who sees me in my boxers; I stand in front of our balcony window in TX almost every morning in my boxers while I brush my teeth (I know I'm weird). Nonetheless I did accept the towel that was handed to me and wrapped it around my waist. Eventually I was dry enough to put on my pants and the event passed without notice.
Afterwards we went to a thai restaurant and other things happened like having to go back to Mike's after it closed and breaking into our boat so that we could get the waterproof camera that someone in the family accidentally left on the boat. But I'm tired of typing so I'll leave that to your imagination.