Clearwater Marine Aquarium

Today's morning excursion brought us to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. I'm pretty sure this was my favorite thing on this trip. This place was inspiring. It was not your usual aquarium- it's a rescue and rehabilitation center for marine life; a non-profit organization staffed with knowledgeable and kind caregivers and home to some pretty amazing animals. The most famous resident is Winter, the tailless dolphin who inspired the new movie, Dolphin Tale. I just loved being there and hearing the stories. Their system was down when we arrived, so they let us all in for free. Awesome, but after being there and enjoying it so much, I spent the money we would have spent on admission and "adopted" one of the animals by making a donation.

When we first arrived, we caught the end of Nicholas' show. He's another young dolphin who has a blistered back after his ailing mommy beached herself. Nicholas was still a baby and didn't know what else to do but follow his mama. They both had pretty bad sunburn from being out on the beach so long. But his scars are the only way you'd know abut his history. This energetic dolphin was So happy and fun!

Then we visited the sea turtles, pet the stingrays, and peeked in on Winter and Panama before catching their presentation. (Note that the kids accessorized everyone with dinosaur stickers before we left this morning...I think we started a new fad!)

During Winter and Panama's presentation, the staff told us their stories and showed us how they perform examinations of the dolphins and exercise them.

There's Winter, tailless, on the left. We did not see her prosthetic tail b/c she doesn't use it all the time.

Brady asked for a stuffie souvenir and chose one of Winter right away. It's literally a tailless dolphin. Papa had me cracking up when he observed that "Someone in China got the pattern to make these things and went, huh? Now wait a minute!" Brady LOVES Winter...I mean, she's a very close second to Elephant. I can say that now that I'm back-blogging nearly 6 weeks later and he still sleeps with her every night and freaks out if he can't find her. Actually, both kids love her. I love how Sylvie says her name, "Weeen-tah!"