Summer Vacay - Phase 1

Phase 1 of our summer vacation was load up and drive 15 hours to Clear Water, Fl!

Why?  During the past year our kids have seen the Dolphin Tale Movies.  Lawson has fallen in love with the two dolphins in the movies, Hope and Winter.  Hudson likes them too....just not as much as his sister.  (Lawson can be frequently found just watching them on their webcam.) Hope and Winter reside at Clear Water Marine Aquarium in Clear Water Fl.

As soon as we pulled up to the place, the kids spotted this house boat...which is an authentic movie prop from the movie.  They were so excited!

Since we drove 15 hours we wanted to get our moneys worth...so we got there at 7:55.  The place opens at 8...but we might have been the first ones there.  And we were the last ones to leave at 6pm, too!

We walked right in to the "Winter Zone"  and there she was! Winter....the famous tail-less dolphin right before our eyes.  We were all a little starstruck I think.  It was such a magical moment for the kids...silly as it is....there might have been a tear in my eye!

Both dolphins were just swimming around.  Hope...the younger, healthier dolphin...was trying to "play" with Winter.  And Winter didn't really have much use for her!  

We spent a few minutes at the Sea Turtle Show then went out to the outdoor pool to see another dolphin, Nicholas.

Then is was time for an educational show.  The staff taught us all about her prosthetic tail...let us touch it...and what was true/fiction from the movies.

Then we spent some time watching the trianers work with the dolphins.  They said that they spend hours "playing" with them everyday so that they don't become depressed.  In the wild they would get a lot of new stimulus everyday, so they do different activities with them daily to keep them from getting bored in the pool.

Next up the Sting Ray show.  This was fun.  They could pet these sting rays.  And these rays had personality.  The would swim up and slap their wings to splash the kids and then swim off.  And then come back and do it again.  It was intentional and funny!

We saw several sharks there.  All the animals that live there do so because they have handicaps that prevent them from being able to live in the wild.

This is an animal procedure room

The sea turtles that live there are ENORMOUS.  Pic doesn't do it justice! This one is deaf!

This is copper.  He is a river otter.  He back legs and tail are paralyzed.  He was hit by a car.  He just drags his back legs and tail behind himself.  Slows him down a bit on land...but not at all on water!

Dolphin Skeleton Bones...weird looking!

This is Ricky.  He is one of the two birds that played the part of  Rufus in the movie.

Then time for another educational game.

Only downer to our day is that we never actually saw Winter wear her prosthetic tail...despite our best efforts.  They wouldn't tell you a certain time she would wear it.  They said they just put it on her for 30 minutes at a time a couple of times a day to exercise her muscles and keep her spine healthy.  We checked throughout the day many times....but never saw her wearing it.  We did see it setting out on the side of the pool.

We signed up to feed sting rays.  See the fish that is a fish sticking up between Hudson's fingers.  You were to stand it up between your fingers and then stick your hand down in the water as far as you could reach.  The stingray would swim over you hand and suck it up into its mouth.  Hudson caught on pretty quick.  Lawson understood...but could not bring herself to let the sting ray swim right over her hand.  She would pick her arm up out of the water every time it came near her.  We were afraid we were going to get kicked out...because they had told us not to "tease" the rays...and although not on purpose...she certainly was!  

We then took a boat trolley over to the Dolphin Tale Movie Museum.  Lawson and I really enjoyed seeing artifacts from the movie.  

All of the items above were worn by Morgan Freeman in the movie

Movie Scripts with actors notes written on them.

The outfit Cozi wore in Dolphin Dale 1.

The bicycles the "Sawyer" and "Hazel" rode in the movies.

Part of the movie set recreated...Sawyer's bedroom

A dress Cozi wore in Dolphin Tale 2

Ashley Judd's dress

Then back over to the aquarium for my dolphin watching!

The crowd was super thick during the middle part of the day...but thinned back out again about an hour before closing.  We were able to get up close to the windows in the bottom part of Hope and Winter's pools.  This was the highlight of the kids time there.  Those dolphins swam right up to the windows several times.  The kids would just squeal with delight!

Of course...our token green screen pics!

And a few videos from the day...

There are no videos of Lawson feeding sting rays...because Rob and I BOTH were trying to hold her hand down in the water and keep her from flinching!

The cool thing about this place was that it wasn't over commercialized...it was really like it is in the movie! We had a great time!  Worth the drive!  One of our favorite family trips!