March 11-14, 2022 - Annie and Violet in Florida for a Quick Visit

On the 11th daughter, Annie, and granddaughter, Violet, flew in from California for a visit with us here in Florida. It was a quick trip, but grandma planned a lot of activities for a five-year-old to enjoy. Also, David had told us about the bird sanctuary in Clearwater which is fun to visit. 

The weather did not cooperate at all for their visit but we made the best of it. Saturday we first headed to the bird sanctuary in Clearwater. It was really great place for a five-year-old with the rescued birds in cages and other birds just walking around among us. This guy was sitting on a post as I walked up. I thought he was a statue at first because he didn't move. He was a beauty.

It was hard to take pictures of the rescue birds because they were behind chain-link fences and often in dark cages. Here is a picture of a couple of pelicans. The hump on their peak is to keep other birds from poking their eyes out and for courting purposes. They are big birds.

This handsome guy was just sitting there watching my every move. He didn't mind having his picture taken. He was about eighteen inches tall and didn't make a sound.

The place had an observation deck overlooking the gulf. I took this picture of Alexa and Violet checking out the beach and also to show the rollers on the gulf that day.

After the bird sanctuary we had a nice lunch and headed back to the campground where Violet got in the pool despite the cold, windy afternoon weather. The pool was heated but it was only sixty degrees out. Needless to say, Violet was the only one in the pool. 

The next day we had tickets to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. It isn't a normal aquarium but more of a rescue operation with some marine exhibits. All of the animals there are rescued animals and cannot be returned to the wild. There are large dolphin tanks and the dolphins were trained to do tricks to entertain folks.

Dolphins use sound to find food. As they age they loose their sense of hearing and can no longer find food and thus die off. I thought this exhibit was fascinating. It is a model of a whale heart. It is about three feet around and four feet tall. Amazing to think about.

There were pelicans here as well. Violet enjoyed getting up close and personal with them behind glass. They clearly reacted to her being there.

After lunch we headed to the beach. It was a cold, blustery day. As you can see in this picture we are all bundled up. I would not even have considered going to the beach on such a day but it was one of the reasons Violet came to Florida.

I couldn't even think about getting in the water but Violet and Annie got their feet wet to make the most

of the experience. The rollers were about six foot high the entire time.

After playing in the water Violet dried off the best she could and went shell hunting and played in the sand.

Upon getting back to the campsite Violet painted her shells and I strung them on a necklace for her. Here we are working on that project at the picnic table. It still wasn't very warm.

While the paint on the necklace was drying we took a golf cart ride around the park on George's golf cart. I let Violet steer a little on our back street. 

It was a short but great visit. Violet thought it was great fun sleeping on the "bouncy" mattress on the floor in the camper. Early Monday morning it was to the airport in Tampa for their six hour trip home.  We will see them again in October when the whole family comes to Missouri for a wedding. We will look forward to it. It's a bummer to have all your grandkids in California, 2000 miles away.