Wednesday, March 6, 2019

The Turtle Hospital

Today (Thu, 21-Feb) we got up early and headed to the Loggerhead Marine Life Center in Juno Beach, about 2.5 hours away. We got there just in time to see them release a large turtle back into the wild! You can watch a video of it on our Youtube channel.

There were *lots* of people there.

The marine life center, aka turtle hospital, was set up very well! Not only could we see the various turtles, but there were signs in front of each tank with the name of each turtle, where it was found, what was wrong with it, and what they were doing to help it. Lots of them were constipated--poor turtles! But they came from all over. Some were found up in the new england area and, being in too-cold waters, were flown in a helicopter down to the hospital. When Benjo heard that story, he asked "did a turtle fly the helicopter?" LOL! Love that boy!

Eliza listening to a worker talking about a turtle.

This is Topsy. Topsy has a lot of air in its butt and has a hard time getting its head up for air. They have some weights on the back of it to help balance it out, but it spent a good bit of time like this! When Amy put Rebekah on her shoulders to see over the top of the tank, Rebekah decided to throw her shoe into the tank! The workers were totally cool about it and fished it out with a net--thankfully the plastic sandal floated!

Rebekah playing, the cutie.

I can't seem to find the picture I thought I took. One found turtle had been attacked by a shark. One fin had been nearly detached at the shoulder along with some rips in the middle of the fin and a bite taken of the edge! I wonder how it escaped at all!

After the hospital visit, we played and played at the beach!

Lots of life up on this beach!

Playin' in the water.

These girls loved jumping around in the surf!

This girl loved it too!

Beautiful panorama of the beach

We had a great time playing in the sand and waves. Benjo too, though for some reason I didn't get him in the pictures. We used plenty of sunscreen, but even still, we came home with some rosy skin in places!

1 comment:

  1. I love Benjo's comment about the turtle flying the helicopter a riot.

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