Manatee Viewing Center, Apollo Beach, Florida

 

On our last day we left early and headed over to visit some relatives staying in a campground for the winter. They took us over to see the Manatees. I had heard on the news a few days before that the animals were dying from the cold and were being washed up on the beach. There was a freeze warning on for a few of the nights that we were there. I was a bit worried about the possibility of seeing lots of dead fish, but it turned out to be very interesting. There was only one animal that looked suspicious of death.

  

On the way we stopped to look at a large eagle next.

  

  

The inlet was full of them!

  

There were walkways out over the water so people could get very close to them.

  

  

There were other types of animals that come in for the warm water. The picture above is my attempt to catch a stingray jumping. All I could capture was the splash. They seemed to jump in succession. They wouldn't jump for a long time and then one would and there would be a line of them like dominoes jumping. It's amazing how high they get out of the water.

On our way to the walking trail there were some monarch caterpillars to view.  

  

All along the trail there were speakers and signs explaining details about the wildlife there. We didn't have time to take it all in. We had to leave soon to catch our plane home. 

  

Here is the temperature of the water.

Small fish all over close to shore, in large schools.

  

 

  

A small shark. 

  

  

We could see the stingrays well.

  

Another fish.

  

Pelicans perched on the opposite side.  

So... like I said in a previous post... our last day was very interesting and we now have an interest in manatees. I've downloaded and printed a free manatee lapbook and I've ordered many books from the library. Some of those books are listed above just under the title bar. Here is the link for the lapbook if you'd like to check it out: http://www.homeschoolshare.com/manatee_lapbook.php

“The largest known cause of manatee deaths is from collisions with boats. We have no control over red tide or cold deaths so we try to focus on the deaths we can prevent.”~ Judith Vallee

Shuttle Launch

The reason for us visiting Florida after the first reason, which was to relax and catch some rays, was for us to see the very last night shuttle launch. We left our resort at 8pm and arrived in Titusville before most of the crowd. We found the perfect spot along the highway just north of the town and pulled over where there was some construction. We had such a perfect view of the launch pad. If we wanted to we could see it from our van. We brought snacks and drinks and conveniently parked next to a portable toilet. We flattened the seats in the back, made a bed and we camped out in the van with our in-laws until launch time which was at 4:39 AM. We got out of the van about 15 minutes before after listening to the radio station. They stated that everything was fine and that it was still "A Go". We got out with two sleepy kids in arms and walked closer to the water to watch. With only 10 minutes to launch we heard that the launch was scrubbed until the next day. What a disappointment. It took us over an hour to get out of our parking spot and we didn't get back to Orlando area until 8 AM. It was a long night with little to no sleep.

With small children it's next to impossible to catch up on that sleep during the day so we ended up not returning the next night. It might have been too dangerous to attempt that again with no sleep. The news said that there was only a 60% chance that it would actually launch that night, but at 4:15 it did launch and we dragged the kids out of bed to run out to a clear area to see it from our resort. We had seen a night launch before from there and had an idea where to go and where to look. It would have been nice to see it close but we at least saw it. I got some sleepy, blurry pictures of it. The first picture was with the boosters still on the shuttle and the second picture is of the shuttle moving on while the boosters are falling to earth below.

 

  

Here is the website explaining the shuttle mission. 

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/main/index.html

The next week they scheduled a rocket launch. The rocket was going on a mission to learn more about the sun. We planned on driving to see that but again on the news they said that the wind had to be under 20 knots and at the time it was 22, so things didn't look good. They canceled it and the next day it went. We slept in and decided not to go since it was only suppose to have a 60% chance of going. It went. We got to watch it on the news live, but didn't make it to see it live. We looked outside to see if it was viewable from where we were but it was just too cloudy. 

Here is the website with status reports on rockets that have been launched. The rocket that went up was called ELV-021210. 

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/launchingrockets/status/2010/elvstatus-20100212.html

 Austyn was so inspired by the rocket that he made his own with Legos.

  

We also worked on his Space lapbook. The kids loved working on their lapbooks while we were away. 

“I believe every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don't intend to waste any of mine” ~ Neil Armstrong

Nature on a Florida Resort!

 

  

  

 These baby ducks were a delight to have around. They were tame and would chase us when we walked near. When we first arrived we counted nine but by the time we left there were only four left. One older couple who fed them every morning said that when they first arrived there were twelve ducklings but they think that the turtles eat them. 

 

  

  

Every year we feed the ducks on our resort. Above are the ducks marching in a row to get us to feed them. I thought that they walk so funny. They really look like they are on a mission. LOL!

  

This bird liked to purch on the Canadian Geese decoys. 

  

  

  

There were many different birds here. I didn't capture all of them on film. We saw some large ones that even reminded us of ostriches just outside the gates of our resort. There was also one duck that looked more closely related to a loon and would dive under the water for minutes at a time and a timid duck with a fan of feathers on it's head. 

 

Many of the trees were almost bare (likely the time of year) and most of them had these plants growing off them. 

  

The flowers were coming out on the bushes. They didn't seem affected by the cold weather.

  

Austyn wanted me to capture this cloud. It looked looked a skeleton.  

We had a tornado warning where we were but you wouldn't have known it. The torrential rains of Florida seem normal and apparently tornadoes can approach quickly and with little notice.  I was on the balcony reading, relaxing, and listening to the rain. I was completely unaware of the possibility of a tornado. 

“When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.” ~ Walt Disney

Animal Kingdom Show and Parade

 

The only show that I could get a good picture of was the Lion King show. We didn't have good luck with seating this visit. We were at the very back for just about every show. LOL!

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

The parade was different than other Disney parades. The floats were very colourful and moved by the people operating each one. Some were completely run by a person instead of a vehicle. It was interesting. The kids enjoyed it. It was a much better trip compared to our first trip to Animal Kingdom. The first time we went Austyn's eyes swelled up and he didn't enjoy it at all. This trip was nicely uneventful.  However I have come to the conclusion that in a regular day you can't even rush through this park and see all of the shows and areas. We've been here twice and knew from the first visit that we couldn't take our time and browse. We had to rush from one thing to the next and we still didn't make it to a part of the park. We'll see it another day, I'm sure.

“When you're curious, you find lots of interesting things to do.” ~ Walt Disney