We started the day off with a morning walk on the beach. When I first woke up, I sat on the balcony taking in the morning scenery. I noticed a crowd gathering around, and then suddenly a rescue truck pulled onto the beach. They quickly taped off a section on the beach. When Dylan and Jackson woke up we went down to see what was going on. It was a brand new turtle nest! We could still see the turtle tracks leading to and from the nest.
The turtle tracks up close. They kind of look like tire tracks.
After we observed the turtle nest, we went for a quick walk. So peaceful.
Playing around with our shadows.
Some cool reflections between the sand and water.
Another bird and a dead crab.
Next stop was Clearwater Marine Hospital to visit Winter and Hope from Dolphin Tale, the movie! This was a two stop trip. First we toured the marine hospital and learned about the dolphins, sea turtles, sting rays, river otters and more. Then we took a trolley ride to a museum that had artifacts from the movie. Once we were done there, we took a ferry boat ride back the marine hospital, where our car was.
It was hard to get a good picture of the dolphins, because you couldn't get close to the railings. They didn't want people to be too close and drop things in the pools. Completely understandable. It was so crowded, and they need to keep the animals safe.
Here's Winter swimming with her prosthetic on.
There was a sting ray touch pool. Dylan was so into any of the touch tanks. He was kind of upset that the pool was so deep - the sting rays weren't coming up close enough to be touched. Luckily, he had a few more opportunities throughout the week.
Here they are touching a sea urchin. Jackson had no interest in touching any of the animals.
One of Jackson's favorite parts of the day was watching the river otters. One of them was pretty playful and was going up and down his slide.
We found a dolphin statue! (There are over 100 throughout the area! Very similar to the STL cakes!)
Scott found an adorable turtle statue!
We found the boat from the movie!
We took a trolley ride over to the other museum part. Trevor enjoyed the trolley ride - but I think mostly because we got out some snacks!
The movie museum had lots of actual items used in the movie. I wish we had more time to really look at the stuff, but the boys were much more interested in the interactive stuff. There was a part we walked through that was a hurricane simulation. It was very loud (thunder & lightning) and windy. It was really cool - although it made the boys nervous. The favorite part, by far, was the carnival that was similar to the carnival in the movie, when they were raising money for Winter. The boys loved playing all the games!
We found another dolphin statue!
I thought this was neat. They used to have a dolphin named Sunset Sam, who was a painter. He painted this turtle statue.
We took a ferry boat ride back to the marine hospital. It was neat to see all the sights in the Clearwater Bay.
Trevor really enjoyed the boat ride. It was a hot day, and the breeze felt great! He was waiving to everyone!
We ended the day with a sunset walk on the beach. I LOVE these young men!
I asked the boys to put their arms around each other for a picture and Trevor went in for a hug. So sweet.
That bird interrupted my shadow picture (but his reflection on the water is kind of cool, so I'll pretend like I did it on purpose)!
Walking back to the condo.
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