Last week Arnie had a conference in Orlando. At the very last minute, we decided to surprise the girls and take them along. We told them during dinner on Tuesday night that we were leaving at lunch time on Wednesday, needless to say they were excited!
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| Thankfully Gracie only slept like this for part of the flight, she didn't understand why I asked if her nose hurt when we landed. |
I knew they would be excited about Disney, but the real reason we wanted to take them is because Maggie has talked about visiting the Clearwater Marine Aquarium for a couple of years, since the Dolphin Tale movie came out. Thursday Morning the girls and I got up early, said bye to Arnie, and headed for Clearwater. I'd read some reviews of the Aquarium that weren't great, people talked about how small it was and a few mentioned not getting to see Winter and Hope (the famous dolphins), so I was trying to keep their expectations realistic.
We arrived in Clearwater about 9:30, got our tickets and headed in......
....we took this picture at the bottom of the steps and I said something like, "remember, she might not be out right now, we may not get to see her first thing, if at all." They took off up the steps, rounded the corner and.....
....there she was. It was amazing! The girls got to sit down 20 feet from Winter and the trainer who was working with her (she's getting a massage in the picture, dolphins shed their skin every 2 hours, so they massage her with a brush to help clean it off). The trainer in the water and another standing right by us talked to the girls, told them everything that they were doing, asked them questions, let the girls ask questions, it was truly a dream come true for Maggie. Maggie asked about Winter's tail, the trainer told her that Winter can only wear the tail for 30 minutes a day, because it's like a hard workout when she has it on, but she asked Maggie if she wanted to see the tail, and before we knew it......
....Maggie was holding it! For the first hour and a half we were there, there were less then 40 other people in the whole place. Every time we turned around another biologist, volunteer or employee was asking the girls if they wanted to see something else or showing them something new. We got to see how they get their food ready, did you know dolphin formula has ground up fish in it????? Probably don't want to use that blender for anything else. We saw how they get the medicine ready, where they keep and rehabilitate rescue animals, and on and on. We all enjoyed it but Maggie was truly fascinated.
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| They rescue all kinds of animals. This sting ray loves to itch its face on the glass, he was there most of the day :) |
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You could go downstairs (just like in the movie) and watch Winter and Hope swim. This was definitely Gracie's
favorite part.
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In the movie Hazel and her Dad lived on a boat right by the aquarium.....and it's still there. They don't live on it anymore, but the
girls were excited to recognize it....and on a side note, Gracie is pretty sure we should name the baby Hazel.
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| Every time we walked back by Winter we stopped to see what was going on. Maggie would have sat and watched for days. |
In the afternoon we took a boat ride out in the bay to look for dolphins. The captain told us he wasn't sure we'd see much because it was windy and a little choppy.
BUT we saw a whole bunch. Maybe 10 or 12 dolphins during the hour and a half we were out. The Aquarium is doing a research project trying to identify all the dolphins who make their home in Mandalay Bay. We had a Marine Biologist with us who documented each of the dolphins we saw and then had to record all kinds of information about the water and environmental conditions when we saw them. She was so kind to explain to Maggie exactly what she was doing (you can imagine how many questions Maggie asked) and then once she had all the pictures she needed she let the kids help her test the water and do her documentation. The Biologist was from Indiana, Maggie was completely intrigued by her and asked lots of questions about how you get from Indiana to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.
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| Throwing out a bucket to get a water sample. |
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| Testing the salinization in the water. |
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| Trying to identify the dolphins (they identify them by their dorsal fin, each one is different). |
We had such a great day and we all learned a lot. Maggie is more sure then ever that she wants to be a Marine Biologist and now she's SURE she wants to work at Clearwater. My only regret is that Arnie had to sit in meetings all day and didn't get to see it all with us.
The drive back to Orlando was AWFUL....it took us an hour and a half longer to get back, the traffic getting through Tampa was the worst I've ever driven in. The only good news is it gave the girls a chance to rest and to rewatch Dolphin Tale :)
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I can count on one hand the number of times we've been able to get her to sleep in the car....it only lasted 20 minutes, but
it was something.
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When we got back to Orlando we decided to do a little shopping and find some dinner. Gracie has been especially worried about what Chip will wear when he or she is born. I'd agreed a while back that they could each pick one girl and one boy jammies to take to the hospital with us, so we found a Carters and they made their choices. Gracie is glad the baby won't be naked....but she still thinks we only need girl clothes for Baby Chip.
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