Gentle Giants and more

Yesterday we went to visit the Manatee Viewing Center at Apollo Beach. It was an amazing and somehow odd meeting of two worlds and we were so happy we went.

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!)...

The girls enjoyed learning about the manatees at the various study sites at the centre...



In this picture, Cassidy is holding a manatee rib - they are very very heavy as the ribs act as weight to keep the manatees on the ocean/river floor where they sleep and feed...



Cassidy is the size of a baby manatee!


At one of the viewing sites...

Walking through the mangrove marsh around the center...


Stopping for lunch...the picture of Cassidy with mac and cheese is for her cousin Sophie, who would have loved it! And I included a copy of the menu...we could not believe how inexpensive the food was here...crazy!

On the way to and from the Manatee Viewing Center, we had to cross the Sunshine Skyway bridge ...this is the longest cable main-stay bridge in the world. Last year we had to cross it once and it freaked me out...the walls on the bridge are really low and driving in the outside lanes frightened me - and I am not afraid of heights!!! When I realized that we had to cross it yesterday, the girls were thrilled and I was not. However, I decided to distract myself by taking pictures as we travelled across it and it wasn't so bad. These pictures do not do the height and "scariness" justice.

We ended our day with dinner at Woody's on the water...dinners in baskets (shrimp and chicken and corn dogs and fries - yum!)...

And Shauna, this self-portrait, taken late in the day by a rather weary mom is to show you my tan is coming along....

Love to all - we miss you Kim and Sophie!