March 26, 2019. Florida with Zane.

I bought tickets ahead of time for today's Pirate Ship Cruise. We drove to Clearwater and paid an arm and a leg to park the car. Aargh.

As we boarded the ship each child was given a hat and a popgun. Zane was a little uncomfortable at the start of the cruise--he was afraid to fall in the water and get eaten by sharks! We saw several parasailers when we were out in the open sea, but no sharks or dolphins.

Once we were underway a pirate called all the children together. They traded their popguns for squirt guns and had a waterfight, trying to blast pegleg Pete.

They turned in their squirt guns for a treasure from the treasure chest--beads. Then they had a hunt for hidden treasure and Zane found a "gold" coin.

A pirate went around painting the faces of those who wanted to be painted, and all the children were given certificates stating that they were honorary pirates.

We said goodbye to Captain Memo and went to lunch. Then we drove to Clearwater Marine Aquarium.

Every child I've brought here has seen Winter, the rescued dolphin with the prosthetic tail made famous by the movie Dolphin Tale. We saw Winter, Hope and PJ, all rescued for various reasons and residents at CMA.

The attendants explained how they take samples of blood and urine from the dolphins to check their health.  They gave them drinks of water and prompted them to do tricks.

We walked around the aquarium and stopped to see otters and pet the sting rays.

As we were leaving Dianne and Zane tried out the hurricane booth--the wind inside the booth gets up to hurricane level so they can experience what it's like to be outside in a hurricane.

We went home and went to the pool for about an hour before dinner and downtime.