Clearwater Marine Aquarium

On day 2 of our Spring Break trip, we drove to Clearwater to visit the Clearwater Marine Aquarium- home of Winter the dolphin. 

 We arrived early and were stopped in the parking lot by a man who asked us if we wanted to touch Winter's gel and tail.  I'm not sure who this guy was, but he was really nice.  Actually, all of the employees at the aquarium were super-nice and knowledgeable.  They made it a point to spend time with each guest and answer all of their questions.

 Once inside, the first stop was the ray touch tank.  It took a while to convince the kids to touch the rays, but they did it.

They were doing some final shots for the movie "Dolphin Tale 2" while we were there.  An employee told us that we were lucky because the aquarium was usually closed off to the public during filming.

We saw them film a scene where Nicholas (the dolphin) jumps up into a tarp looking thing to be transported.  It will be cool if this scene actually makes it into the movie.  One thing I learned- it takes a lot of equipment to shoot a movie.

 Here's the lighting guy on the roof.

 We saw all kinds of fish, turtles, dolphins, pelicans, and an otter.  The kids liked the touch tanks a lot.  Here they are touching an urchin.

 After Nicholas finished filming, it was time for him to show off a bit.  We attended the dolphin show and watched him play.

 We also went to the pelican feeding.  Rufus (the pelican) was the kids' favorite character from Dolphin Tale, so we had to spend some time with him.

 Olivia was a participant in the game show "Name that Pelican".

 Of course, no visit to this aquarium would be complete without visiting the star attraction- Winter.  She was receiving physical therapy when we saw her.

 After leaving the aquarium, we drove to Clearwater Beach.  My friend Anna comes to Clearwater every year and just raves about how great it is.  The kids had never been to the gulf side of Florida,  so we figured we might as well check it out.

Anna is right- the beach here is beautiful- quite a bit better than the Atlantic side.  The water was still a bit cold and we didn't have swimsuits, so we just put our feet in the ocean.

Anna also recommended that we eat at Frenchy's.  So glad that we did, the food was delicious, and the restaurant was right on the beach.  This was a nice ending to the day.