Old Florida

My Brownie troop took a road trip yesterday to the Miami Seaquarium to check out a slice of Old Florida. This place is practically ancient in Florida years, dating back to 1955. It's the oldest operating oceanarium in the United States. The girls loved the day and all of the sea life and shows; I loved the historical aspects. I've been to the Seaquarium before, in 1982. (Yes, I'm old, OK!) I was sad the old rotating shark wasn't out front anymore; I guess one of the hurricanes (Andrew or Wilma) took it out. That thing was huge! It was a shark swimming either up or down (can't remember which direction) on a rotating pole. I don't think it was a real one; I'm pretty sure it was some kind of plastic. I poked around for images on the internet and couldn't find one; I'll have to go through my pictures from 1982 and see if I have a shot of it.

I have a confession about this post- I've typed in and deleted a whole bunch of stuff! As I went to look up little tidbits to link to about Lolita, the Miami Seaquarium orca, and learned a little more about her history I had to change what I was writing, then I decided I wanted to keep this a light and breezy post about the troop so I cut it all out. That's not to say I don't care about Lolita; I'm not quite sure where I stand on the issue, but I don't want to get into it here. Her capture was wrong but she's the oldest whale in captivity now so they must be doing something right by her, and the trainers obviously love her. That doesn't make it right, but... argh, I'm doing it again!

Suffice to say, the girls had a lovely day and learned a lot. Here are a few photos:


The Middle Child


I can't believe I got this shot of Lolita!


Another one of Lolita.


The dolphins can put the best of the best of our basketball players to shame with their jumps!


The Middle Child feeding fish to a sea lion


A sleepy sea lion. The girls sang him lullabies and I swear he was nodding off to their songs.


The Miami skyline as seen from Discovery Cove in the Seaquarium.