During the various trips we’ve made to the Florida Keys, we’ve always driven by the Dolphin Research Center but never stopped. We decided that we wanted to check this out. As the name suggests, it’s a place that researches dolphins. There are also a dolphin rescue centre. It is divided up into a bunch of different lagoons where all of the dolphins live. There were educational/demonstration sessions about every hour. What basically happens is that the trainers give a talk on a subject (for example how dolphins play) and have the dolphins demonstrate.
The center is a not-for-profit organization so every dollar that you spend there is put right back into the center. There are many activities that you can do. You can meet the dolphins, swim with the dolphins, be a trainer for a day and the one that Karen did, paint with a dolphin. They give you a t-shirt clipped to a piece of carboard and you get to pick two paint colors. You then hold the t-shirt out over the water and the dolphin with the paint brush in it’s mouth, begins to paint your t-shirt. The two dolphins that painted Karen’s shirt were Calusa and Santini. Calusa even got paint on the shirt that Karen was wearing.
After spending the morning there, we picked up a late lunch from The Island Fish Co. and enjoyed it back at the motel. We wanted to hit a beach and our neighbors recommended that we go to Bahia Honda State Park. We got there and found a spot on the Gulf side since the ocean side had too much seawood. We jumped right into the water and were very surprised as to how warm it was. I mean it really was bathtub water. The park has camping right on the beach so went went over to the campground to check out the sites. Many of the sites were shaded and were ocean front. Maybe next time we’ll camp.
We went back to the motel to relax and enjoy our final sunset in Florida. We had dinner at The Castaway where we enjoyed something called HoneyBuns. They are basically deep fried dough that you then pour honey over. There were very yummy. Since we don’t have internet at the hotel, we stopped off at the parking lot of the public library where I posted Friday’s blog.
Be First to Comment