An octopus and an eco-tour!

What a wonderful day!!!!!  We spent the morning on the beach at the Marineland facility taking the "Behind the Scenes" tour. Learned some interesting things, like the fact that the oldest dolphin in the world lives here. Nellie is 59 years old! Holy Crap! How about this: Dolphins shed their skin every 2 hours!!!!!! We saw dolphins of all shapes and sizes, from a little guy still nursing to a 500 lb. adult.
My favorite part of the tour of this facility, which by the way has been here since 1938, was the octopus tank. That little girl really put on a show, gyrating and changing colors and hugging the side of the tank just for us.
Strange Fact: "The Creature From the Black Lagoon" movies were filmed here.

This afternoon we took a private Eco Tour with  another couple to the surrounding wetlands.  Chris and Brandon took us out on their jet boat that runs on cooking oil!  It really goes fast and the exhaust  smells like french fries! We visited the wetland area where we saw all sorts of plantlife and wildlife including egrets, herons, an osprey, a bald eagle, dolphins, skimmers, terns, pelicans, and sea gulls. This is a unique area where southern black mangroves meet savannah grasses from the north.  It is an area teaming with wildlife. We visited Matanzas Inlet where we could experience the power of the shifting tides in a small boat. We even got to see Ft. Matanzas and learned the history of that ancient structure built by the Spanish in the 1700's.  I loved every minute!