Clearwater Marine Aquarium

Our first full day in Florida, we spent time at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.This is the home of Winter, the dolphin with a prosthetic tale.

The houseboat from the movie "Dolphin Tale"

If you know Isaac, you know he absolutely adores dolphins. He was the first to recognize the houseboat when we got to the aquarium.

We got there right at opening and it was getting crowded already! We wandered around, looking at all the animals, including leatherback turtles, river otters, the pelicans that played Rufus in the movies.

Then we found Winter and Hope's pools. They don't share a pool, but do stay next to each other. Hope came to the aquarium after being found stranded, I believe. Winter had lost her other pool mate, Panama due to respiratory disease. Her son, Nicholas, is still at the aquarium. We were able to watch Nicholas show off his skills in the rooftop pool (pictures below). Isaac insisted on sitting in the front row so he and Mark got soaked! I wasn't able to get any good shots of him, though.

Winter! It was hard to get good photos as they have the bars, and you are about 2 feet back from the bars.

This was amazing for Isaac. He is so excited to see "Dolphin Tale 2" when it opens this week. It was awesome to see how in awe he was to finally see Winter and then Hope as we explored the aquarium.

The aquarium was the former water treatment plant before it was turned into the aquarium.

After the aquaruium, we headed to my aunt and uncle's. Then we headed to their son's home for a bbq. We had burgers, Iowa sweet corn that we brought down and ice cream with my grandma's homemade fudge sauce. It was great to see my cousin's again. Isaac was able to see their horses as well and he seemed to enjoy it! He also loved on their dog, Pepper!