Crystal River Manatees

On Tuesday we visited Universal Studios Orlando, and went to Islands of Adventure to visit the amusement park rides. We did the new harry Potter coasters, Jurassic Park ride, Flume Ride, Spiderman, and Incredible Hulk Coaster. We also did the ET Ride, Simpson’s, Jaws, The Mummy Returns, and Twister.

Wednesday we traveled to Crystal River Wildlife reservation to do a manatee tour with Fun2Dive. It was really great. We snorkeled around in the many coves of the reservation and saw many manatee. We also visited a few of the natural springs that feed the area. Tracy spotted a crab on the bottom. We saw many fish, and were visited by still more manatee. Heather brought her underwater camera, and we were able to get some really neat photos.

Manatee Sign
Looking for those…
Manatee
Manatee Eating
Manatee
Swimming Manatee
Crab
Crab at Crystal River
Manatee
Friendly Manatee
Manatee
Circling Manatee
Manatee
Friendly Guy
Manatee
Fun with Fun2Dive

If you are in the Orlando, Florida area, and want to swim with the Manatees, we highly recommend Fun2Dive. They specialize in small group (1-6 people), all day excursions to view manatees in a non-threatening natural environment. More photos in the Florida flickr gallery.

Discovery Cove

This fall Tracy and I traveled to Orlando Florida for vacation with Craig and Heather. We had a really good time. Monday we went to Discovery Cove, nd all inclusive resort where we swam in a huge artificial reef complete with rays and a variety of fish, we visited the bird aviary and fed many friendly tropical birds, we floated around the lazy river, and swam with the dolphins in the cove. It was a lot of fun, and included admission to Sea World, which we visited on Thursday. There are, of course, a bunch of photos in my flickr gallery.

Aviary
Discovery Cove Aviary
Aviary
Tracy feeding the birds
Parrots at the aviary
Tracy feeding a bunch of parrots.
Friendly Bird
Tracy and the friendliest bird ever.
Aviary
Craig made bird friends too.
Ray
Discovery Cove Ray
Discovery Cove
More Rays
Salt Water Pool
Fish