Way out West...

I'd never been to the West coast of Florida... but I have now!  We did a road trip via Tampa to Clearwater Beach.  It is an amazing beach - fantastic sandy beach, but to be quite honest, on Saturday it looked quite like Brighton beach in terms of the number of people trying to squeeze themselves into the same bit of space.  Big difference, I guess in terms of weather and lack of pebbles, but otherwise, yes, just like Brighton beach!  We didn't venture forth as it was most unpleasant looking... and there was nowhere to park!

We did, however go to Clearwater marine aquarium - what a treat!  Becky and I really wanted to see if we could see manatees, but it's not the right time of year, apparently.  Wouldn't you just love to bump into these guys whilst out for a swim.

I now know that the aquarium is home to a very famous pair of dolphins - who we saw with our very own eyes!  Winter and Hope - you can read about them http://www.seewinter.com/winter
A prosthetic tail on a dolphin is quite a thing to achieve!

What we loved about the centre is that it is a working animal hospital, so many of the animals are in rehab or are being cared for with a view to being returned to the wild or, like Winter and Hope become permanent residents.  The animals are not made to perform for the visitors, but they do love to play and it's great fun to watch them enjoying themselves.  The staff clearly adore the animals and are happy to just go along with whatever they want to do.