Clearwater Marine Aquarium and Winter the Dolphin

Dolphins have been my favorite animals since I was at least like, 10. I remember my parents let me redo my bedroom, and it was dolphin EVERYTHING! Light blue walls, with a dolphin border, bedsheets that looked like water and a comforter and pillowcases with giant pictures of dolphins on them, stuffed animals, figurines, you name it. You’d think after that I may have gotten over my obsession, but obviously not because they are still my favorite animal. And I still can’t bring myself to get rid of some of those dolphin figurines. (Lol)

We went to Florida for a short trip a few weeks ago, and of course we had to go to the beach. When we lived there, we didn’t go to the beach very often once we had kids because it was so much work for staying such a short period of time. But, this was our first time visiting from somewhere that was significantly colder than Florida, so we had to enjoy the fresh, semi-warm sea air while we could. It was chilly there, but still warmer than Washington, so I wasn’t complaining.

Dolphins. Turtles. Tattoos.

We decided to take the kids to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium since it is just down he street from the beach. Surprisingly, we had never gone, even though it was just a fairly short drive from where we lived, and I’ve been to that beach hundreds of times. We’ve even watched the movie Dolphin Tale a few times. Obviously we thought it was cool that it was filmed somewhere we were familiar with, Clearwater, FL. But, the main character, Winter, is a dolphin, which we have established is an animal I like. Winter got caught in a crab trap and was taken to the Clearwater Marine Hospital at the Aquarium. She lost her tail from the injury and the team ended up creating a prosthetic tail for her to help her swim. It’s a good movie, you should watch it. There’s also a sequel.

The story of Winter has been an inspiration to a lot of people, especially those that were been born with missing limbs, or lost them later in life. And people from all over come to see Winter and how capable she is of doing many things, even though she is missing a vital part of her anatomy that is typically necessary for survival. She wasn’t very active when we were there, but one of the employees mentioned she had a busy morning with a group of kids earlier that day. Even so, while we were talking to the employee by the tank, we kept seeing Winter glance in our direction. It was like she heard the employee talking about her, and I’m sure she did. Dolphins are very intelligent. You can add that to the list of reasons they’re awesome.

The Aquarium isn’t a big fancy aquarium that you see in other cities, like the Florida Aquarium or the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. It’s a rehabilitation center and animal hospital first and foremost, not a tourist attraction. I’m pretty sure the only reason it’s even open to the public is to raise awareness and to help support their mission. All the money spent there goes directly back into the aquarium.

Other animals may come and go once they are rehabilitated. But they have some forever residents, like Winter and Hope the dolphins, and there’s also some otters, sea turtles, fish, stingrays, and pelicans. They are currently expanding and building a big, new area for Winter and Hope that looks like an area the dolphins will love. 

Beach. Playground. Churros.

After the aquarium, we drove down to Pier 60 at Clearwater Beach and walked around and played in the water. The water was too cold for Floridians, but we’re kind of tourists now, and our 2 year old doesn’t care how cold the water is. She ran right in as soon as she saw it, which meant that I had to run right in too. Luckily, there was a sand bar a few feet off shore, so it wasn’t very deep, and she loved walking through the water on the sandbar. We played at the playground for a while and grabbed some churro fries at the pier, and attempted to head back to the car, which took at least 3x as long with a toddler who just wanted to play in the water. When we finally made it back to the car, the kids were out within minutes after an eventful day of walking around and playing in the sunshine.

I didn’t realize that I even missed the sun, until we were in Florida and I could just sit in it. This was a short trip, and was spent mostly taking care of sick kids… funny how that happens when you go on vacation. But, we are looking forward to our next trip to the Sunshine State, whenever that may be.

Have you heard of Winter or watched Dolphin Tale?

Thanks for reading!

XO