Clearwater, Florida!!!!

The girls have wanted to go to Clearwater for a while to visit the dolphin, Winter, from the movie, Dolphin Tale. Mikayla is still interested in marine biology so a visit to an aquarium there was also a bonus!  We used my mom's timeshare and got a condominium in Indian Shores, FL. We were snug between the bay and the beach. We island hoped each day on new adventures.  We all wished we could have stayed longer as there were still things that we wanted to see.

The girls playing barbies on the plane to Tampa Bay, Florida.

The even thought the airport shuttle train was fun!

Our place is the building in between the umbrellas. We rented one of the umbrellas for a day.

 

A baby pelican landed on our beach one day.

 

The girls and my mom riding the waves.

 

Relaxing under the umbrella.

 

 

The girls walking the beach at sunset before bed.

What seaweed looks like before it dies (I think).

This is a Blue Button Jellyfish. Mikayla was eager to research some information on it!



Pretty flowers that grew on the beach.



The condo pool that we spent almost more time in than the beach!

Cute little lizards would scurry around the pool area.

A very impressive sand castle Elyana and I built together.

We had quite the path to dig for water to fill the mote...



Pirate Cruise! We weren't too thrilled with this. It was a very hot day and there was not a lot of shelter from the sun nor wind to cool us down this day. Mikayla was also a bit too old for the activities.  I did have fun with the water gun fight though!



Roasting in the sun waiting to board.



Love this sign!

Limbo!



 

Found these on the beach one day and Mikayla knew what they were...moon jellyfish. I thought they looked like breast implants. They were not harmful. A little girl was playing with them, trying to skip them in the ocean like flat stones...



Feeling Winter's prosthetic tail at the Clearwater Aquarium!

Dolphin showing us his tricks.









We got really splashed!





This is the type of bridge that you can drive to each island over.








A few marine biologists took us out on a boat ride to do their daily specimen catch.

The girls got to collect shells while the biologist tallied.

 

 

Time to experience a real hurricane!

It's getting windy.

 

Winter's home.

This is Hope, Winter's friend.




Rescued sea turtles

Rescued otters.



Souvenir



This is the girls on a snorkeling cruise!

Tortoises roam Egmont Island.

They used to keep prisoners on the island.

We explored the island and found a beautiful side!

 

We were excited that we found a manatee on this side of the island.

We met a family from England on the boat. The girls were about the same age!

One of the boat crew showed us how to feed sea birds Cheetos.

Going out to dinner.

Selfie!



We found an artsy store and I got some great ideas...

Lots of things I can do with extra shells!

 

Very easy to paint!

We loved seeing the different birds.

This church had a crucifix with Jesus handing dove down. I had to drive closer to it because at first I thought it was a fish he was throwing down. We all laughed at that.

 

We loved our evening beach walks. So relaxing and fun.



Fun writing our names in the sand!

 

 

 

I got pretty good this summer at learning to braid Mikayla's long hair. This is a combo of a French braid and a fish tail braid.

Breathtaking!

 

 

This is my favorite vacation photo! I have plans to paint it.

 

Can you tell I missed Nate?

 

Our flight waiting area had a kids play area.



The wings that brought us home. See the awesome bridge we flew over? Amazing that people built that!

Ready to come back home.