Clearwater Marine Aquarium

Monday was filled with more fun and adventures! We spent a good bit of the morning back at the pool and then got ready to go back into Clearwater to meet Winter the dolphin. 

We had lunch at Conch Republic (our favorite restaurant that we tried) and also checked out Reddington Beach for future beach trips. We really liked it better than Treasure Island simply because the beach wasn't so wide.  Next stop was Clearwater Marine Aquarium!

We really didn't know what to expect when we got to the aquarium, but I surely didn't expect most of the exhibits to be OUTSIDE---IN THE HEAT!  And boy was it hot.  Let me give you the background- CMA was a nonprofit research center that helped Winter recover from her accident.  It was small, and not really made for large amounts of people. That being sad, it feels small and unorganized. But the kids loved, we are glad we went, even if we don't go back. 

 

The coolest part of the aquarium was getting to "meet" Winter and hear her story. Since I have never seen the movie, I only knew bits and pieces of what happened to her. She was just a baby when her tail got tangled in a crab trap.  Some fisherman saw it, called for help, and she ended up at CMA. After cutting the rope from her tail, the tissue from the tail started dying. They didn't amputate (which I thought they did)-it just died.  So anyway, poor Winter couldn't swim so the researchers had to "help" her swim and come up for air. They began physical therapy to teach her how to use her body to swim instead of her tail. Then, some company heard about Winter and made a prosthetic tail for her! She doesn't use it all the time, as she can swim without it. But they do use it for physical therapy. Cool huh?  She goes through 4-5 "tails" a year since she is still growing- she is only 300ish pounds and will be around 700 when she is full grown.

 

Bennett holding Winter's "tail"


We ended the trip with an ice cream treat and then headed back to Treasure Island to say good-bye to Mimi and Papa. 

 



Treasure Island Fun with Mimi and Papa 2013

 

We got up fairly early Sunday morning and ate a healthy breakfast of powered doughnuts and strawberry milk in the room. The boys were so excited because the knew my parents were coming down for the day. We filled the morning with playing in the sand and pool anxiously awaiting the arrival of MiMi and Papa. 

 

Levi loved the water and hated the sand last year at the beach, but this year he wasn't so sure of either element.  He's the kid that cannot stand getting dirt on his feet so we had to carry him a lot of the time. He liked the water, but was a little overwhelmed by the waves and really didn't care for the salt in his eyes.  He did get used to it enough for it to be fun thought. He just preferred the pool, and after our swim lessons with Tiny Bubbles we could not keep that child from trying to swim.  He thinks he can swim the entire length of the pool without coming up for air!

 

 Bennett loved both the sand and water, but only in spurts. This was our first year experiencing chaffing with him, and boy was his daddy sympathetic.  I tried to tell him that if he wouldn't roll in the sand, it wouldn't get in his pants but that took all the fun out of it, so we would carry him to the shower and help him shower off everything. Bennett also loved the pool. And even though he can swim really well, he isn't very confident. He did venture away from us a few times and really enjoyed being able to touch the bottom and walk around. 

Mimi and Papa finally showed up after lunch, and the first place we went was back to the beach! Both boys had so much fun playing and showing off for their grandparents.

 

 

 After we finished playing in the water, we headed across the street to shop. Both boys picked out boogie boards and about a gazillion toys (that we did not buy.) Bennett REALLY wanted a "turnip" crab (also known as a hermit crab) We told him if he found one on the beach that we could keep it, but we were not buying one. 

 

We had planned on going into Clearwater and checking out Pier 60 for dinner, but it started raining.  After waiting about 30 minutes, we decided to try and go anyway. We got to the truck and realized we were BLOCKED in. Everyone was in a designated parking place but the spaces were so close together that we couldn't back out of our spot. This is one of the main reasons we won't stay at the Thunderbird again.  Luckily (well actually, thanks to a quick prayer) the people behind us were leaving about the time we had given up. So away we go.  It rained the entire way to Clearwater. Because of the rain the events at pier 60 were postponed so we walked over and ate a Crabby Bills to wait. The food was great, but service was not.  I cannot believe that my 5 year old loves mussels. We ordered him an entire appetizer of mussels as his meal and he ate most of them!

The rain finally stopped and we walked out to the pier. We didn't go all the way out, but the water was beautiful. The beach was another story. Pick up your trash people! We couldn't believe all the litter everywhere.

The cool thing about Pier 60 is that they have vendors and street entertainers all around. Their is also a lot of sketchy people, so we didn't get too far from each other. The boys loved watching all the performers though.  Bennett didn't want to leave the man using buckets as drums.  And Levi liked the guy juggling knives and balancing on ladders. But both boys' favorite was the acrobats. They were really fun too watch even if their humor was a little too adult for my kids.  Bennett and Levi have reenacting that show many times since coming home.

It was getting late, and the people were getting creepier so we called it a night and headed home.

Hadsock Family Vacation 2013

After a very long hiatus, I am going to try to start blogging again. It will take me a while to catch up on all the things that I want to write about, but I am doing it so I can remember all the fun times I am having with my boys.

When we were planning our vacation this year, Quinn mentioned wanted to visit Central Florida's beaches since we had never been there. So, I started doing what I do best-planning. I asked around, googled and found Treasure Island, FL. It's between Tampa and Clearwater. After much thought, I ended up booking us for four nights at The Thunderbird Beach Resort.  It looked a little old in the pictures, but got great reviews and fit our budget with a little wiggle room. 

Saturday Morning (June 22) we loaded up and headed to the beach! The boys were so excited! At least for the first hour of the ride. Since I knew we were visiting the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, I bought the movie Dolphin Tale for the kids to watch on the way down. They were not interested in watching anything, but luckily kept themselves entertained. We stopped in Gainesville and at BJ's. It's at the mall there and we loved the food! It was a great place to stop and stretch our legs.  After we got back in the car, everyone was full and ready for nap time!

The second half of the trip down was fairly easy since both boys slept most of the way. Traffic was terrible but we managed to get to the motel right at check in- 4:00. 

Our motel was...interesting.  It wasn't terrible, but it was definitely old. It still had the porcelain toothbrush holder glued to the tile in the bathroom. But it was clean! We unloaded our stuff and went straight the beach. Absolutely beautiful!  We were practically the only ones on the entire beach (and it was a loooong walk from the sand to the surf)

We enjoyed a couple of hours in the water before heading to dinner at Sloppy Joes. I really liked it-kid friendly, a quick walk on the beach from our room, good food, and reasonably priced.  After dinner, we strolled along the beach looking for sea shells and enjoying each other. So nice. Then, it started to rain. Not long after the rain started, the storm came.  Luckily we made it back to the room before we got too bad.  This was about the time that Levi started asking to go home. Oh boy. I tried to pump him up about sleeping on the sofa bed (both boys think this is so cool) but he was having none of it.  Quinn and Bennett walked to Walgreens to get breakfast stuff for the next morning while I walked Levi on the beach to try and settle him.  I finally laid him in our bed and let him watch "Team Umi Zoomi" on my phone. He feel asleep very soon after that.  Day one of family vacation is in the books!