This year I was limited on the amount of time I could take off of work, so we didn’t make it down to the Keys to see Nana.  Instead we took 3 days and drove down to Gulfport, FL where we rented a bungalow.  It had two bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen, dining room, and a living room/office.  It also had a nice backyard with a hammock, a grill and some patio furniture for outdoor dining.  There were a lot of beautiful plants and a little pond.  The backyard was private and it had an outdoor shower, which we used to rinse off after a trip to the beach one day.  It was a very nice little place and we all enjoyed our stay.  Grant was especially excited to go and was very sad to leave.  Here are some pictures of our stay in Gulfport, FL:

The Bungalow:

A Day at the Gulfport Municipal Beach:

It was a beautiful day and the beach was really nice. They had a great playground next to the beach as well. The kids loved it.

Clam Bayou Nature Park

Within walking distance from the Bungalow was a nice nature park with hiking trails and water views.

Ice Cream at Micki’s Ice Cream Shoppe:

We had some good ice cream at Micki’s Ice Cream in St. Pete Beach, where we drove one night after dinner.  They had a whole wall that was a dry erase board for people to write messages.  The kids enjoyed that.

On our way home on Saturday, we drove over to Clearwater and went through the Aquarium there.  Clearwater Marine Aquarium is a non-profit focused on the rescue, rehabilitation, and release of marine animals.  “Clearwater Marine Aquarium staff and volunteers work each day to rescue marine life and provide the most advanced and effective care to maximize the opportunity to return sick or injured animals to their homes. The animals that come through [their] doors arrive because they are suffering from an illness or severe injury. Many of [their] animals are found by local residents, fishermen, park rangers or even visitors to the area.”

The aquarium is also home to Winter.  She is a dolphin that was discovered by a fisherman caught in a crap trap line, which cut off the circulation to her tail.  Despite her severe injuries, Winter survived.  But the end of her tail could not be saved.  She had to learn to swim without her tail flukes (side-to-side, like a shark, instead of the typical up and down movement use by dolphins).  She was also fitted with a prosthetic tail which encourages her to use the typical up and down movement to propel herself through the water, so that those muscles remain strong.  You can learn more about her on the website.  She was also the subject and star of the movie Dolphin Tale.  There are also other animals which reside permanently at the aquarium because their injuries were too severe or because they were orphaned at too young an age to survive in the wild.  Here are some pictures of our day at the aquarium:

They had a cool hurricane machine that showed what the winds inside a hurricane are like.  Grant and I tried it first and Jenna was very upset that she didn’t get a turn.  So on our way out, we had to stop and let her do it too.  Here is a video of that:

Jenna liked it so much, she didn’t want to get out.

As we entered the aquarium, they took some pictures of us in front of a green screen.  We thought they were kinda cute.