Vacation Part 2

I'm not sure where we were when I took this picture of Elliana, but it is so pretty I had to post it for you all to admire.

Outside the stores in Downtown Disney there are several things to take pictures with, the boys liked the pirates.

One day on our trip I drove the kids to Clearwater to visit the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.  If you have seen the movie Dolphin Tale you will be familiar with this aquarium.  Aaron always drives when we go on road trips.  When I drive over 50 mph I get pretty nervous.  So tackling this two hour road trip (through Oralndo and around Tampa!) alone was a labor of love for my kids.   Not to mention the very high bridges over the Gulf (I am scared of heights).  The kids were so excited to see Winter, which made the trip completely worth the stress.  When we arrived the kids were so excited to see that the building was the same one from the movie.  They even had Hazel's grandfather's houseboat.

 The Aquarium offers boat trips to the Gulf.  I reserved our seats before we left on our trip and it was well worth the extra expense.  They took us out into the Gulf and threw out a net to catch sea creatures.  They pulled them up and told us all about them.  We even saw a wild dolphin playing by our boat.

The kids waiting for our boat ride to start.

 A very tall bridge that I had to drive over..yikes

 The kids on the boat heading out into the Gulf.

 The workers in yellow life jackets are getting ready to throw out the net and catch creatures.

 Asher looking at the animals that came up in the net.

 They also took us to "One Tree Island" for some shelling.

 Elliana finding a good shell.

 We pulled up a sea urchin and we all got a chance to hold this amazing sea creature.

Showing us the brittle star.

 Visiting Winter...