Well, with the end of our time in Florida almost here, we had to work in the last shopping trip to our favourite store! On the ride home we crossed another of the many bridges in St. Pete's and were delighted to witness the sunset...
Once we were home, the youngest Thompsons modeled a few of their new ensembles...
Sadly, today was our last full day of vacation and the only day without sun. Didn't slow us down though and certainly didn't stop B and C from enjoying the pool all to themselves!
Then out we went for our last Florida seafood dinner - with the favourite clam chowder...
By the time we returned to the condo, the sun was out again and we took the opportunity for some last pics in the sun...
We have enjoyed every moment of our Florida vacation...especially since Kim and Sophie were here with all of us for this one.
Thanks for coming along on our journey with us - see you soon!
The Manatees, gentle large sea mammals, need a number of elements to survive and thrive...shallow, warm waters, an abundance of sea grass and the other vegetation they eat, and safety from predators. Unfortunately, people and pollution have so drastically affected the shallow waters of Florida that these gentle giants are now endangered.
Interestingly, groups of manatees now congregate around industry plants as they warm the waters. Such is the case at Apollo Beach where there is an electric plant warming the shallow waters of an inlet. Tampa Electric created the Manatee Viewing centre across the inlet from it's facility and it is now a wildlife preserve where the manatees are protected. Interestingly, the water here is very clean...clean enough to drink apparently - even the clouds rising from the stacks are mostly steam.
This is a wildlife preserve and other than viewing the manatees from various decks around the inlet, human interaction is prohibited...in the photo below you can just see the snout of an adult manatee with a baby tucked close to the left - that's as close as you can get (note the picture at the top of the blog is from a book!)...
Yesterday we spent time exploring the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center which is an amazing complex of IMAX movie theatres, a Rocket Garden (filled with replics of all the Nasa rockets and space modules)...
fun play centres for the kids...
a memorial to astronauts, one of the out of service space shuttles (wow)
and a cool cool cool space shuttle simulator which replicated an actual shuttle launch--yours truly and Bryanna went on that while Kim and the little girls watched from an observation area (as they were too small to go inside). We then ended the day with a visit to the Astronaut Hall of Fame. Kim and I were fascinated to read the history of all the astronaut teams - all the tragedies and the triumphs. What a phenomenal history there is in NASA's space saga.
The girls were more interested in all the interactive exhibits...
Of course, my daredevil Bryanna had to try out the 4 G-Force Simulator. I was terrified for her but she was determined to go and she, well...see the following for the whole story!
Waiting for the simulator to start...
See the Simulator in motion!
The astronaut emerges...
But today is the day that Kim and I were waiting for. We returned to the Visitor Centre and caught the bus to take us out to the launch area observation tower. We passed the Vehicle Assembly Building - where they attach the shuttle to the rockets (the building is the third largest in the world....see the red stripes in the flag on the building? The longest stripes are 20 stories high.)
