Manatee

It's that time again..... my yearly manatee trip with my students.  This year, Blondie got to go.  We take our students down to Florida for 3 days and get to visit a wildlife refuge, snorkel twice with the manatee and then snorkel down rainbow river.

 

Homosassa is the first place we visit. They take in injured animals from Florida and rehabilitate them hoping to release them.  If they can't they maintain them for the rest of their life.

Here's Blondie on the morning boat out to the first manatee swim. All of the students are excited, but the reality when they get in the water and manage the snorkel, and in water that is murky, and periodically a big mammal will swim past your field of vision.  Many panic at first, but I was so proud of all of them today.

Here she is looking for them.

There's one.

And doesn't that look like the baby manatee that followed me around last year - a little bigger?  Probably isn't, but I was thrilled to see this one.

This is what it looks like when they "swim out of the murk"

I can't post pictures of rainbow river because they are mostly students snorkeling, but trust me....... it was great too. Blondie was so tired by the end of the day,  but managed to find time to jump in the pool. In a little bit we'll head over to the ice cream parlor.