Winter (The Dolphin, not the season ;)

Winter!

For more than a year, our dear children have been asking us to go see Winter the Dolphin from the movie Dolphin Tale.  I almost went a few times, but usually something came up.  It has been on my "to do soon" list since Christmas, and the perfect opportunity came this weekend. 

Hazel's houseboat from the movie Dolphin Tale

We drove down to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium and spent the afternoon checking out Winter and her friends, learning about some of the local marine life, and even went on a Seafari cruise.

I'm not sure if Winter the Dolphin lived up to the girls' expectations.  She was rather ellusive and kept swimming to the opposite side of the pool than we were on.  However, the dolphins weren't quite as shy.

Hope, a 2 year old dolphin, getting a belly rub.

A blind sea turtle

CMA is a small animal rescue, turned aquarium.  The movie Dolphin Tale has brought new life to the facility.  They still conduct may animal rescues and rehabilitation ...but the mark Dolphin Tale left was evident.  They even have a separate building where many of the props from the movie are on display. 

We splurged a little and went on the Seafari cruise, a 1 1/2 hour boat trip through the bay of Clearwater.  A net was dropped and collected sea life for about 3 minutes.  While the marine specialist went through the net full of sea grass and small fish, we received a backwater tour of some of Clearwater's most famous homes.  This reminded me a lot of Naples, because any time you go on a boat ride, you always get a who's who of houses that you pass.

Nate enjoyed the boat ride

We "caught" a puffer fish

We ended up on a small "island" where we could collect broken shells and take cool pictures by this big tree:)  Since we are Floridians and unimpressed by the broken shells, we decided to take pictures on the tree:)

 It was a very nice, family afternoon.