My kids LOVE the Dolphin Tale movies-and I do too! For years, I've heard about how awesome Clearwater, FL is for a family vacation, so this past month, we packed up the boys and headed to FL. It was an amazing vacation that kicked off with a visit to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium to visit Winter, Hope and their friends in their home. Not only was it fun to see the set of the movie (including Hazel's houseboat and the pool where Sawyer spent the night taking care of Winter), it was amazing to see all of the animals and really learn about them.
Two of my boys love animals, but Brennan, one of the twins (who are three), has proclaimed since he could talk that he doesn't like animals. Wouldn't you know within 5 minutes of our arrival, we met a staff member with a starfish-and Brennan was his first one with his fingers in the tank petting the starfish. He loved it so much that a short time later we encountered a pool with sting rays and his hand again was the first one in the tank to touch them!
There were demonstrations throughout our visit where staff members of the aquarium featured different animals and we got to hear their stories and learn about them. We met Nicholas who came to the aquarium with second and third degree sunburns as a baby in 2002. Because he lost his mother, he is deemed unreleasable and so he will remain at the aquarium for the duration of his life. We met Hope who was rescued while trying to nurse from her deceased mother and is also unreleasable. She loves to play with squirt guns and we saw her excitement and heard her 'chatter' when she asked for more. There were loads of sting rays in two different areas where my boys were able to just leave their hands on the top of the water and the rays would come right on up to say hello! Turtles, pelicans, fish, nurse sharks, and more!
Of course, our favorite animal was seeing Winter. For me, it was almost emotional to see this beautiful creature-to know that she's been through so much-and still persevered. We got to see her swimming both from the top and below the tanks, there was also an amazing viewing area to see her swimming around and playing. To know that the CMA is a hospital that rescues animals regularly-but then to see the animals who have been rescued. To see the hospital areas and be welcomed into them and see where the specialist and animal care takers nurse these animals back to health-it was truly amazing. You can see some photos and even a video of Nicholas waving to us here:
A technical note about our visit-strollers ARE allowed at the aquarium-we took ours, because those 30lb twins were not in my workout routine for the day-but in hindsight, we didn't really need it. The aquarium is extremely walk-able and not huge that your kids will get worn out immediately. Our stroller ended up being more of a hassle-and we wish we had left it behind. That being said-there is stroller parking available too!
Thank you to the team from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium for hosting us as well as Macaroni Kid Clearwater, FL for helping us plan such an amazing visit and trip! We loved absolutely every minute of this vacation.
