“I thought you were having shrimp”

Today we went to feed the tarpons (large fish) at Robbie’s. It’s relatively inexpensive and was really fun. Nova was pretty freaked out. Esme and Asa preferred tossing the fish in. Cal, Nole and I fed them by hand. It was pretty exciting. We also saw a manatee and a nurse shark.

Cal feeding the tarpon

Nole’s turn

My turn

After feeding the tarpon, we ate at the Hungry Tarpon Restaurant. After clearing up some questions about the menu (FYI the “Tarpon club” is just the name of the sandwich and does not contain tarpon–apparently they’re protected, haha!), we started ordering. When the waitress got to Nole he said “I’ll have the blue marlin” to which in replied, “I thought you were having shrimp”. Turns out Blue Marlin was the name of a drink and Blue Marlins are not usually eaten. Our waitress was nice but I’m sure she did an eye-roll as she walked away.

After lunch we tried to go to Ann’s Beach but realized we forgot a bag with swimsuits and sunscreen in it back at the Airbnb. So instead we swing by the condo to pick up the bag and hit John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. We went to “Far Beach” first and I’m glad we started there. It is a little more remote so there were fewer people and more wildlife.

We brought our own snorkeling masks and flippers. Asa said their was coral under the water.

Asa found Cassiopeia jellyfish in the water. They like to swim upside down. They don’t trap food like other jellies but instead survive from photosynthesis due to a symbiotic relationship with dinoflagellates. This also means their sting is pretty mild. Luckily we didn’t get stung though.

Asa really wanted a coconut. Here he was trying to climb the coconut palm.

Then Cal tried to shake one down. That was until a man told him they could die if a coconut fell on them.

Nova swam pretty far out (she’s back on the right in this picture). I was surprised because she is usually not one to swim in natural bodies of water due to fear of water creatures. Then Nole and Asa saw a skate or ray swimming in the water and when Nova heard that she got out and wouldn’t go back in. We also saw an iguana swim past. At first we thought it was a crocodile but we were corrected by some locals.

After Far Beach, we packed up and checked out Canon beach. There we got to see the mangroves up close. Also there was a bunch of coral on this beach and Nova found some interesting pieces.

While we were at Far Beach, some people were talking about how you could see Saturn and Jupiter tonight. It’s also the winter equinox today. So after showering some of the sand off and eating dinner, we walked to the marina near the condo and watched the sunset and looked for Jupiter and Saturn.