This time we were a lot more victorious in swimming with the manatees.
Thanks to my friend, Ben, from High School and his family coming we had a DIVE FLAG.
Jake's brother, Aaron, and his family came down from GA for this and they loved it too. Thanks to Hailey's underwater camera we have some pictures to show off. I'm just sad we didn't take more of the families that were there with us. William and Grace were perfect boat babies.
As you swam over them it was like there were big boulders under you, nope, those are not boulders, they are manatee bodies.
Brandon said he saw them eating.
Here is the opening to the spring.
Look at these "water cows" in action.
Some of them had tail damage from having run-ins with boats, sad.
Such tiny "arms" for such big bodies.
Thank-you to Hailey again for the pictures.
Solomon absolutely loved the water. He wanted to be in the water, splashing continually, and gnawing on his little vest.
Three Sisters Springs has really been developed by the city to preserve the land surrounding the spring from erosion and protect the manatees. I do feel like the development has taken away from the one with nature feel we've had in the past. I do understand their desire to preserve things here though. I still love that this is the only place in the US you can swim with manatees in the wild.
I'm a real big fan of sharing highs and lows from our outings as we drive home.
My high was easily Mali Su's gleeful reaction to a manatee. She had swam a little ways away on her own and all of a sudden yelled out in a girlish excited squeal,
"A MANATEE,
A MANATEE,
IT REALLY IS A MANATEE,
A MANATEE"
and as she giggled in delight others around stopped and smiled too.
What a joy to experience these things with our children!
I too loved feeling them brush up against you unexpectedly, it was my favorite part.
Thank-you family for making it such a great success!
That. Is. So. Cool.
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