Sunday October 17th

[22:35 EDT]

We took a trip over to the south side of Anna Maria island. We visited the The Mote Marine Lab and Aquarium complex. It houses injured sea creatures but also has an aquarium and does a nature trip around the bay on a boat.

Weather is still warm and sunny - hurricane Paula has long since fizzled out to a simple depression over Cuba so the forecast is still bright for the rest of the week.

So we travelled around the bay in the Mote nature boat. On board was a captain and a botanist who kept up a commentary of the birds, dolphins and even the one manatee that we saw as we travelled around. The craft docked for a while at an uninhabited island to allow us to have a look around there (not much there really) then we returned to the water.

On the trip back, the botanist threw out a drag net and caught a small selection of animals - some fish, a sponge, a couple of crabs and even a couple of big snails.

Linda wasn't too keen on the snails (too slimy for her liking) but she did have a close up look at the other animals.

Once back on dry land, we visited the nearby dolphin/turtle/manatee area and finally walked through the aquarium.

Back to the room, then we went out to the local cinema to see the newly released Red. Not a bad film actually - 8/10. Even Linda enjoyed it.