A Dolphin Tail

Have any of you ever seen this movie?

I have not, but after our experience today,

I cannot wait to see it!

Today, we drove to the the 

Clearwater Marina to visit Winter,

a baby dolphin who lost her tail

after she got it caught in a crab trap.

Thanks to the help of the veterinarians and

trainers at the Clearwater Marina,

Winter was nursed back to health and can swim

without her real tail

(she now has a prosthetic).

While I actually was not able to get any pictures of Winter

due to her swimming back and forth through the tanks,

I did catch some pictures of her friends.

This is Panama

Panama helped Winter get acquainted at the Clearwater
Marina

A dolphin show featuring Nicholas the dolphin

Amy & Greg, that would be a nasty Steelers football
he has in his mouth. I thought Nicholas had better taste.

After the dolphin show we had fun petting stingrays...

...being eaten by sharks....

...and taking pictures with dolphins.

Then we took a ferry ride to the Dolphin Tale experience.

Posters of the movie in all different languages.

When we left the Dolphin Tale experience,

we decided to take the trolly instead of the ferry.

Now one little tidbit of information, the Marina

is not air conditioned. So not only were we hot

by the time we were finished, but we were also famished!

Time to eat!

We cooled off with these...

 

After a delicious meal and watching LOTS of coverage

of the Royal Baby being born 

(I'm so excited for my BFF Kate!),

we did some shopping on John's Pass.

Of course we had to stop for ice cream, too!

What a fun Florida day!

St. Pete Beach, Day 3

While the boys (minus Opa) and Keri went

on a deep sea fishing adventure,

the rest of the girls and Opa played

in the sand and pool.

We rode this...

...had ice cream sundaes by the pool...

...and did a little bit of this. 

For dinner, we did a take out order

from the delicious Skidder's restaurant

right across the street from our hotel.

(We actually ate here many times for

breakfast and lunch while on our trip!).

Another great day spent by the beach!

St. Pete Beach, Day 2

Day 2 at the beach consisted of a lazy beach/pool day.

What a BEAUTIFUL day!

Keith, his mom Lisa, and his dad Steve

Nicole, Troy, and Mom
Look at that water in the background! Gorgeous!

Jaida & Johnny

Me & The Hubbs

After the beach and pool,

we all cleaned up and walked across the 

street to Snapper's for dinner.

We had outstanding food,

but what was even more outstanding

was our service.

Our waiter was remarkable!

What I absolutely LOVED about all of the

restaurants we went to in St. Pete is that they

accommodated our large party of 10 so easily.

I don't think we had to wait longer than 15 minutes

in any of the restaurants we visited!

After dinner we hit the pool again of course! 

Love this little fishy!

Most of our nights were spent hanging out at one of the

three pools on our resort.

Such a fun filled day of water, sun, food, and family!

P.S.--The pink hotel in the background of the "pool" picture

was the scenery for the movie Spring breakers.

I haven't seen it yet, and really didn't have a desire to before,

but now I feel like I MUST see it since we were there. :)