Water World

I hope all of you are enjoying the close of your weekend. As for us, Brad, Harper and I had a very relaxing Sunday.

First, we decided to visit the Clearwater Aquarium. I had wanted to go for a while. Besides being a pretty serious marine animal rehabilitation facility, the Clearwater Aquarium was featured in the movie Dolphin Tale. I should confess that I never saw the movie, but all of the hype piqued my interest in the aquarium (plus I had a 2 for 1 coupon).

Dolphin Tale is based on the story of Winter, a three month-old dolphin calf whose tail and lower vertebrae were amputated after she was seriously injured in the wild (presumably after being caught in a crab trap).  Now she swims with the help of a prosthetic tail. Winter still lives at the Clearwater Aquarium, along with two other female dolphin calves, and they are on display in the main aquarium.

Harper had a wonderful time watching the three calves perform. She even started to imitate their clicking. She was, however, even more fascinated with the divers in the tank across from the dolphins. She kept repeating, “People! People!” over and over.  She just couldn’t fathom what the two human beings were doing scuba diving with sharks. Anyway, we also got to see the otters and turtles and various other sea creatures before we left.   

After the aquarium it was still early in the day, so we drove back to downtown Tampa and watched Harper play in the water fountains at Curtis Hixon Park (I thought ahead and brought her swim gear with us just in case). She was deliriously happy racing around in the fountains, even if she did look like a drowned rat (I’m one of those over protective mothers who dresses her kid for a day outside like she’ll burst into flame if solar rays come in contact with her skin).

Afterward we had burritos at (Tampa's legendary) Taco Bus and then headed home. Right now Brad is bathing Harper as I type this, so she is happily waterlogged again. I swear, that kid should grow a tail of her own.

All-in-all it was a lovely day.