Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium

Wednesday
Another beautiful start to the day, but we opted for a change of scene today, and followed a recommendation from our friends Jan and Steve, and visited the Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium near Sarasota. The Lab aims “to advance marine science and education, supporting conservation and sustainable use of marine resources”, and the public Aquarium and associated education programme translates that research for the public. Their displays include sharks, turtles, manatees, alligators, river otters, rays, sea horses and coral amongst others. It was a fascinating day, helped by many informative and enthusiastic volunteers. I loved watching the river otters - they were so active and playful, and you could watch them above and under water. I found the sea horses fascinating too. We got back to the island about 3.30,and treated ourselves to an ice cream, which turned out to be huge and really delicious! By this time, the wind had picked up and it was really cooling off - tomorrow will be 10 degrees cooler than today - so we went “home” and changed into some warmer clothing before going for a long walk (about 4 1/2 miles) on the beach. The outward leg we walked at a decent pace, but the return was more of a dawdle in places, as I kept stopping to take in and photograph the glorious sunset unfolding before us!