A Lot Of Dolphins And A Lot Of Pie

This was the most "relaxing" day of our entire March Break vacation. We had no set plans and no schedule. We knew we wanted to visit the Clearwater Marine Aquarium so that was the big adventure for the day. We started with a slow morning of sleeping in, eating breakfast, and doing some laundry at our hotel.

Since it was March 14 (3/14), we also wanted to eat some pie. So we stopped at a Domino's Pizza for "cheese pie!" Hahaha! This was just in case we didn't get any other pie that day. Then we went to the aquarium.

While I generally don't love animals, and I really don't enjoy zoos, I quite like aquariums. I was happy to see lots of dolphins...

...turtles...

...seahorses and eels...

...and sting rays. Rachel enjoyed petting them and I touched one, once. Did I mention I am not an animal person?!?! :)

We had a quick snack and I got a Key Lime pie cup. It was okay.

 

We had bought tickets for a dolphin watching tour. I loved being on the boat on Clearwater Bay, even though it was a little cold. We were wearing shorts and t-shirts and it was very windy on the boat. We did get to see a few dolphins though, although not very up close.

After the boat tour, Sam and Rachel wanted to see different things so Sam and I went to see the pelicans...

...and Rudy, the saw tooth dolphin. He was playing with a ball and splashed us a few times!

I really enjoyed visiting the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.

When we were on our boat tour, we saw a restaurant and the tour guide mentioned it was a good place to eat so we decided to check out The Bait House. It was small place on the water and the food was amazing! Dave and I thought it was the best meal we ate all vacation. On the left are the shrimp in a bourbon sauce and on the right is the Key Lime tart. Sam, Dave, and I shared a couple of entrees and it was all very good.

The Bait House from a pedestrian bridge -- small but very delicious food.

Even though it was very cold, we wanted to spend some more time on the beach so we headed to a small park on the shore. We enjoyed playing with the waves for about half an hour. It was very windy and the wind would break the foam apart and send it rolling down the beach. It was fun to try and dodge it.

I was craving something sweet, and the water at our hotel tasted really awful, so we popped into a grocery store to pick up a bag of cookies and some bottled water. It turned out they were having a pie tasting for Pi Day so we also bought the Key Lime pie pictured below. We devoured it once we got back to our hotel. It was so good.

This was a fun, pie filled day of vacation and it was so nice to have a less busy day in the midst of all our driving and other fun adventures.