Saturday Date

I slept with Lee last night O.O ^_^ Minds out of the gutter. We were watching "The Call of Cthulhu" on my living room floor and I fell asleep cuddled up against him ^_^ And that's how I woke up with him this morning too ^_^ He snuck out and headed home before mom got up. He didn't want to wake her. After mom got up and was functioning, we got breakfast at Burger King and then did some quick shopping at Walmart and came home. Around 10:30a, Lee calls and wants to know if I want to go to the Mote Marine Laboratory with him, he would pay for my ticket. Umm, let's see, umm, heck yeah! I've never been there before. He, his parents and his little sister, Hannah, picked me up an hour later and true to his word, he bought my ticket ^_^

What's cool about Mote is that unlike most aquariums and such, most of Mote's sea life comes from native Floridian habitats. So by visiting Mote, you get a rough idea of what is in the waters around the area. Mote also does shark research and helps sick and injured sea animals. It's divided into three builds: the main aquarium, the bird hospital, and the mammal and sea turtle tanks. The bird hospital takes in injured and sick birds and helps them back to health with hopes that they can be returned to nature. The unfortunate few that can't be released, are kept safe on the grounds until a new home can be found for them. The same is true of the sea mammals and sea turtles. They have two full sized manatees, a dolphin and three logger head sea turtles and a couple of hatchling sea turtles. I never realized how HUGE manatees are. I've only seen them in the canals and rivers, never up close and personal o.o In the aquarium, they have living exhibits representing local eco systems such as grass beds and mangroves. There is also a large tank with sharks and giant fish even a few that were injured and rescued. There was this massive Goliath Grouper in the tank. It was the size of a boulder and probably weighed as much. I've seen pictures of divers swimming next to one and being dwarfed by it's size. There was also a preserved giant squid there named "Molly." In the live fish tanks there were rays and crabs and jellyfish and sea horses and itsy bitsy tiny baby sea horses. Of course they where in a special tank to keep them from being eaten by everything else. But they were so cute ^_^

After doing Mote, Lee, and his parents, took me to dinner, again, his treat. They ordered portabella mushroom appetizer that was to die for. For dinner, I had penne pasta with mushrooms, artichoke hears, sundried tomaties, olives and olive oil and garlic. OMG was my tummy full ^_^ I ended up taking home a doggy box ^_^ And again, Lee paid for my dinner himself ^_^

Afterwards, we spent the rest of the evening down at the beach with the drummers. Hannah and I dance the whole time while Lee watched us and his parents slipped off to be by themselves. After a while, Hannah thought I looked tired and suggested that I rest and that she would keep me company ^_^ She fell asleep cuddled up between me and Lee ^_^