The drive to get to the aquarium took us about 40 minutes, and our route took us over the Courtney Campbell Causeway which we had driven across on our way here from Orlando. We were much closer to the shoreline as we traveled eastward and to my surprise I spotted the fins of several dolphins in the water quite close to shore! There are cruises around the bay offered by the aquarium, but we got our dolphin sighting for free before we even got there.
Fawn’s sharp eyes provided another bonus; she rode by on her bike this morning to give us a coupon for the admission fee that saved us over $20, since January and February are seniors’ appreciation months! Not only that, but we were treated to a free pastry and coffee or tea on our arrival, which helped us tour the facility and miss the lunch-hour crush in the cafeteria. It was great fun looking at sharks, rays, barracudas, seahorses, sea stars, eels and jellyfish – especially from benches set out in front of a huge expanse of glass that we could look through in comfort at some length. It was also fun watching the reactions of visiting children when they spotted some especially unusual specimens.
We’ve had a good week, with outings to various shopping malls and restaurants, and pleasant get-togethers with John and Fawn and other guests in the park. On Tuesday the four of us went out to Carrabbas, an Italian restaurant chain we discovered last year, for a delicious meal of minestrone soup, lasagna, ravioli and cannelloni, as well as hot crusty bread and ice cream with caramel sauce and pecans for dessert.
Fawn and I signed up for craft class this week, where we made cancer bracelets. We had kits with stretchy monofilament on which we strung Swarovski crystal beads in colours to represent the different types of cancer – teal for gynecological cancer, black for melanoma, and so on – with spacers of frosty or clear beads. We first went around the table to hear how cancer had affected our lives or those of friends, and it was amazing to hear how many people have battled the disease, including some of those present. The toughest part of the craft was putting on the final bead and crimping it with a special tool; more than once we were groveling on the floor for beads when the crimping job failed to pass muster!
Overnight last night we had some wind and rainy weather, which twice got us out of bed to turn off the Weather Band warning system on our satellite radio! We really didn’t need to know about four-foot swells on the gulf and the need to find a safe harbour when we were snug in our bed! Finally, we figured out the Mute button and got a restful sleep at last.
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