The girls and I were able to escape to the warmth of Florida over winter break. Other than a chilly first day, the weather didn’t disappoint. We had some fun seeing some music at the open air bars in the town. Something we can’t do with kids here in Seattle.

We were able to go to Mote Marine Aquarium in Sarasota. They had these super cool jellyfish there. There were also turtles, penguins, sharks and lots of fish.

There are two resident manatees at Mote marine. They eat some ridiculously large amount of cabbage and kale (or other greens) each day. They were very cool to see. Mote marine does rehabilitation for the manatees and turtles that can no longer live in the wild due to injury.

We of course got to see some other interesting sea folk there too.

We hit the beach one day. It was a bit chilly. Lots of folks with their scoop bucket things looking for sharks teeth. Two happened to sort of show up on the sand in front of me, just enough one for each girl. They had fun looking but didn’t find any more. They also enjoyed swimming a bit. Thankfully someone thought of bringing the life jackets as the water was too cold for the adults to go in. The girls didn’t seem to mind.

The ladies of the house went to play mini golf one very windy day. The girls did much better than last year (in that they actually played this year) and with a 5 stroke limit, they were very close in score to their Oma and I. Hmm, I might need a bit more practice.
It was a great visit. We miss you lots!