Stingray Encounter

Today Moira and I had another adventure with fellow blipper, dbifulco.  We spent the morning at the Clearwater Marine Center exploring all the exhibits and observing their rehabilitation of marine life.  Moira loves sharks and watched Thelma and Louise first.  They really did look like they were best friends lying next to each other with their fins touching!  The green sea turtle feeding was very fascinating and captivated Moira's attention for awhile. After the turtles, we watched the resident Dolphins, Hope and Winter.  The work that they do with these Dolphins is amazing.  I was disappointed that we didn't get to see the trainers work with Winter using her prosthetic tail.  Since the center is a working rescue place, not a show place, there are no set times of when they work with the dolphins. Moira enjoyed seeing Hope make some great jumps and play with her ball.

I would say the stingray pool was Moira's favorite.  We visited it two times.  This photo is a little blurry, but one that I think shows how much she enjoyed petting the rays.  It was hard to tear her away from the stingrays.  The promise of food worked and we headed out to enjoy lunch at a great seafood restaurant,  Guppies' on Indian Rocks Beach. 
Moira and I both agreed, after we took dbifulco hom, that it was a great adventure with a very special friend.  I posted some more photos of the day on flicker.