One of our first EDventures in Florida was a visit to the
Clearwater Marine Aquarium (CMA).
This is home to Winter the Dolphin from the hit movie
A Dolphin Tale.
The house boat is from the movie and the kids were very quick to point out that the basket above the boat is where Hazel "homeschooled."
This is where "Rufus" the annoying pelican hovered from!
The actual marine rescue truck that goes to the scene of animal rescues.
The wire fishing net that Winter was all tangled up in and caused her to lose her tail.
A rescued turtle...
One of the animal hospital operating rooms...
Touching a live sea urchin
Sting Rays...
Dolphins doing their training sessions.
Here's Winter. She was much smaller in person than I had expected.
This is her friend Panama doing some tricks :)
This is for the rehabilitation of sea turtles.
An entire new pool and awnings (not the one pictured below) were build just for the shooting of the movie. After filming ceased they were given to the CMA for continued use. The CMA is currently adding on to their building to accommodate the increased numbers they now have coming through their space. As you can imagine this little aquarium became of big hit almost overnight!
We went on a Sea Life Safari~
Our guides would lay out nets into the water to see
what type of sea life they could catch...
Once they pulled in their discoveries they passed them around for us to look at and the educated us on the different fish and animals in the water. It was really very fascinating.
And of course, the kids loved it!
They then took us to a small island that had lots of shells and allowed us to walk around and EDventure for a while. Let's just say...pockets were bulging!!
Admist it all Daddy spotted something he found a tad more exciting...
We loved this little house tucked between the hotel real estate.
There's a story there somewhere. It would be fun to know it.
Jake made fast friends with our tour guide and got all of his questions answered and had some great discussion with him.
Back on land we headed on a trolley ride to the Behind the Scenes Movie Tour of
Dolphin Tale.
A model of Winter's Spine and why she needs her tail to help keep it aligned.
More hands on learning...
Movie Set: Dr. McCarthy's desk
An enlarged film set piece of Hazels
"Homeschool/Thinking Spot"
The prop of Winter's prosthetic tail
A demonstration of how they made the hurricane that hit the CMA hospital.
Fans were blowing and ...
Paige got blown right over!
And explanation of the tail parts
The chance to feel what the tail sock feels like...
The Carnival games that Hazel & Sawyer created to help earn money for the CMA!
Connor loving the larger than life size DSi!!!
Did you know Dolphin's can paint?
As part of their therapy, some of the dolphins are taught to paint.
They say that dolphins are such people creatures that they need lots of interaction and get bored easily so they have to change things up to keep them engaged.
This board is in the lower level of the hospital and holds all of the information for each of the animals that they are currently rehabilitating. It keeps track of their meds, their therapy, when they've been given certain helps, tracks their weight, etc.
Extra pools for when overflow is needed.
Often they have a large number of turtles come in at a time and need help before returning them to the water.
The CMA goal is 3 R's RESCUE, REHABILITATE, RELEASE!
Hospital Pharmacy
This is how they keep track of the animal's food intake...
This device is used to feed animals that cannot eat on their own...
Bottle for feeding...
This mat is filled with a type of bleach water.
Whenever someone enters this area they must step in this to de-contaminate their shoes.
Anyone suspect of being in contamination is required to stay away from the hospital for 72 hours.
More food logs...
This is the kitchen in which all the animal food is prepared...
Another operating room...
Winter's sock and Paigey holding her prosthetic tail.
It's almost as big as her!
Winter loves to whistle.
The whistle you hear her do in the movie...she does that often.
The whistle you hear her do in the movie...she does that often.
We didn't hear any of the other dolphins whistle in glee like we heard Winter.
She really likes people!
And how better to end a fishy day than at a beach front restaurant...
Eating...Crab Legs!!!
And playing on the beach during sunset!!!
