2016 Disney Day 5 – Clearwater FL
Today we took a break from WDW. Grandma and Grandpa Heider picked us up in their rental mini-van. We drove to Clearwater, FL. The destination was the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, where Winter and Hope are from Disney’s Dolphin Tale and Dolphin Tale 2. The aquarium is more of a rehabilitation center for sea life like dolphins, otters, and turtles, than it is an aquarium. Nonetheless, it was fun and a lot quieter than WDW.
You can see an associate doing therapy on Winter in one of the pictures. We also got to see a show they do, which is a bonus for the training they do with Nicholas. Nicolas was orphaned at a young age by his sick mother and couldn’t be released to the wild. The CMA is committed to keeping him, so to keep him active and using his brain they teach him tricks. I caught him mid-air, which was pretty neat to see. The girls got a chance to touch a sea urchin.
Afterward, we headed to a local dive bar/grill for lunch in Clearwater Beach, FL, that the Heiders had learned of on a previous visit. The Bait House had a wonderful lunch. I had the fish tacos with Corvina, blackened. It’s one of those places that, without previous knowledge, you’d probably never know about. But after learning the local secret, you’re in love. That shortly sums up my feelings on The Bait House and my definition of a dive bar/grill. I wish I could make it a weekly lunch stop. Unfortunately, the plane rides would get expensive.
After lunch we headed to a few local beaches to check out the sand and ocean. The weather was finally starting to warm up. At the first beach, we found a local fisherman who sounded like he was from Great Britain but I couldn’t discern his dialect exactly. He stepped away for a minute, but the birds kept a lookout on his pole. When he got back to his pole, he had caught a small stingray. He showed us the poisonous barb in the tail and then released it.
The second beach we went to had finer sand than the first. The girls loved running into the small waves on the Gulf of Mexico. I got to touch salt water for the first time. It was an absolutely fantastic day. My favorite day of the vacation. Thank you, Ann and Dan.
The girls and grandparents got lots of time together. The girls did get a chance to enjoy the pool today, too.
