A Dolphin Tale in Clearwater Beach

Today the four of us - Tom, Eileen, Kathy and David - drove over to Clearwater Beach to get to know it better.  Our first stop was the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, which is the home of "Winter" a dolphin that in 2005 was found stranded as a three-month-old infant on a Florida beach near Cape Canaveral.  She was taken to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium to be nursed and ultimately rehabilitated.  She had gotten caught in the ropes of a crab trap, and the ropes were wrapped so tightly around her tail that it ultimately lost too much blood and the entire tail died.  Winter, however, returned to strong, good health and learned to swim like a shark (with a side-to-side motion) rather than as other dolphins swim (with an up-and-down motion).  However, such extraordinary use of unusual muscles started to curve her spine, which would have ultimately caused her pain and perhaps prevented her from swimming altogether.  So, with the help of many others, the Aquarium helped devise a special prosthetic tail and ultimately got Winter to accept it and learn to swim the normal dolphin way when she wears it.  As a sidelight, the gel "cloth" that was used to wrap the prosthetic around Winter's tail stub and help attach it, was specially designed to make it more comfortable and avoid irritation, rubbing and sores.  This was a novel solution, and now that they discovered it, it has been applied to humans who need prosthetic limbs - which has enabled thousands of humans to use their prosthetic limbs for whole days at a time, where previously they might only be able to use the limb for a couple hours until it became too uncomfortable.  So Winter has already given back to the human community!

Here is a photo of Winter, fit with her prosthetic tail:

She also grew close to another, older dolphin, named Panama.  Here is Panama showing off to the crowd of humans at the Aquarium:

 After exploring the Aquarium, we took the Aquarium's trolley to "Winter's Dolphin Tale Adventure" in Clearwater City to learn the background to the making of the 2011 film, "Dolphin Tale" which is the dramatized story of Winter and her rescue and rehabilitation.  The movie stars Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Harry Connick, Jr., and Kris Kristofferson.

After a quick lunch at a sports bar in Clearwater City, we took the trolley back to Clearwater Beach and explored it a little.  Here are the four of us, just hanging out there:

Aside from the unique landscaping at the beach, one of the interesting features is the beach showers, which are topped with fanciful sea turtles.  Here are Kathy, Tom and Eileen in front of one of the turtles --

-- and David and Tom in front of another:

 As it happened, someone had done a sand sculpture about the movie, "Jack the Giant Killer," which we stumbled across and photographed:

 We took a stroll along Coronado Drive, the main street in Clearwater Beach, poking into some of the souvenir shops.  We had a drink at Frenchy's Rockaway Grill, and then walked over to Frenchy's Original Cafe for a photo for Tom and Eileen, then wandered back down Coronado Drive for dinner at Jimmy's Fish House and Iguana Bar.

An unexpected guest arrived for dinner just after we sat down:  George the Snowy Egret, who our waitress says has been stopping by, just to watch the patrons as they dine.  Here's a photo of George looking over Tom's shoulder.

Dinner was tasty, and we headed home with tummies full and memories overflowing.  Another adventure completed in Clearwater!