Updaty goodness!

[wispfox]

My parents and I went kayaking with a marine biologist, through Mangrove Kayak. They were in a tandem, since my mom doesn't have sufficient stamina in her muscles (she had polio when younger) to paddle the entire time. I, and the guide, were each in our own kayaks.

We were a little unsure if we'd be able to go out, since tropical storm Bonnie was passing through that afternoon and might have been causing things problems.

We did go out (although the marine biologist's wife had suggested not bringing us out, and we had called before anyone was likely to have headed out to make sure it was on). The water was a bit chopping, and it was a bit windy.

Because of this, we hugged the shore a lot, and instead of getting to use our guide's remote control boat to tow the plankton net, he attached it to his kayak, then mine, then his again and collected plankton that way. He was thrilled with the plankton I collected (it was very very green!), even though he attached it to my boat, and pulled it back off and all I did was paddle, to the point of offering me a job if I ever want to go into marine biology. Rather random, that!

We saw a very pretty osprey (see my very few pictures, since I was paddling myself. My mom will have more, once I get ahold of them), lots of mangrove trees, and had great fun on the water. Were only out for about an hour and a half, rather than 2-3, due to the storm.

Went back to shore, then got to look at the plankton we'd collected. There were diatoms, little plankton, bigger plankton which were eating the little ones literally as fast as it could catch them, and tiny tiny shrimp. Who knows what else, as we didn't look at all that much of the water or even the dish he prepared for us to look at. They were big enough to be able to see even the little ones with the naked eye (barely)!

After the kayaking, my mom was wiped and napped for at least 2 hour, while my dad and I first went grocery shopping, then went shell collecting at a beach on the island. Unfortunately, the beach is machine-combed regularly, so any larger shells are broken by that. Still have some nice ones, some of which my dad found. :)



Next day was time to drive back to my parents' place. Lots of driving. All day in the car. Icky.

Sunday was set aside for relaxing. Call with metahacker around noon, lunch at Friendly's, off to try to do something about waterproofing cameras for Monday. Target did not have what were effectively bags for cameras, but did have an absurdly cheap (and yes, it shows) underwater camera. So I got that, and ordered the actual underwater case for my good camera, to ship to my parents' place for when I go to Honduras.



This morning, it was up at 7am - including needing to wake my mom who had had the time she needed to get up incorrect - and off to Discovery Cove. We checked in, exchanged my mom's wheelchair for theirs which works well on sand, and determined that theirs _sucks_ to maneuver. The axle is on the back, not the front. This is a problem!

Got snorkels, prescription goggles, animal-safe sunscreen, and a wetsuit vest thing (the full wetsuits were overly warm for when not in water, and just not worth it). Found a place to park our stuff, and headed into ~80 degree water for a bit of orientation with the snorkels and goggles.

After a bit of that, it was time to visit with stingrays. In ~70 degree water (brr!). If you sat near where they seemed to continually swim by, it was quite easy to pet them as they swam by. They're soft, firm, and somewhat slippery, and very strong when they are flapping upward toward your hand. I do like rays. :)

From here, we went to the coral reef area, with many tropical fish, much larger rays, and - behind glass or plastic or something - nurse sharks (separate from) and barracudas. The nurse sharks were, well, nurse sharks and didn't much care what we were doing outside their enclosure. The barracudas looked like they were considering trying to eat people.

Had lunch, and I started to notice some unpleasant chaffing. I eventually realized it was because I had not rinsed off the salt water from my skin before walking around in my suit, but far too late to prevent the unhappy skin problems.

Briefly stopped in the aviary, and determined I wished to return with my camera.

Went to our dolphin encounter, where we got to pet, rub the tummy of, kiss, and ride on a dolphin. And a bunch of other interactions which were not direct contact. Very, very cool. :) I've never touched a dolphin before!

After this, I showered, changed out of my wet suit and into dry clothes, realized that I had burned my shoulders (*sigh* Doesn't hurt yet, though), and wished mightily that my poor inner thigh would stop chaffing.

Went back to the aviary, took many pictures which I am unfortunately unable to get off my camera because I can't find my cable (weird, since I put cables in a very specific location! Will call the timeshare we were at tomorrow. My dad thinks it's normal mini USB, so I may be able to get a cable from, say, radio shack). Had birds sitting on me eating from a dish of food in my hand, which was cool. :)

Went back to where my mom was, we packed up the stuff, she showered and changed her clothes, and we headed out. Exchanged the evil, evil wheelchair that handles sand fine for her much easier to handle wheelchair, and headed to the timeshare we're in near Sea World for three nights (something about it being just about free because the company is trying to get people to buy in this new building, so my parents are going to a talk in the morning).

I think we're going to Sea World sometime while we're here, because we're nearby, I like Sea World, and it's free with the Discovery Cove ticket (my parents have a year pass, so my dad has no problem getting in as well).

I know my parents are figuring out when they can go - it's much cheaper to go to Discovery Cove in September, at least for Florida residents - once my mom has a job again. My dad was envious this morning, but I was not positive he wanted to go initially, and the prices are _not_ cheap.

Pictures! There are more, once I can get them off my camera.