March 13: Sarasota Bay

Our first full day of Florida found us taking an Eco Boat Tour through Sarasota Bay. My wife had discovered this little expedition during one of our last visits when we went to Mote Aquarium. We stayed the previous night at the Hilton on Longboat, as we couldn't get into my In-laws condo until Saturday (3/13). And, we couldn't get into the room until about 3:00 pm, so we planned out the boat ride beforehand as something to do while we waited to settle into our digs for the week. It worked out nicely. The tour consisted of about 57 people. mostly tourists like ourselves, on a 30-ft. pontoon boat. Aboard, we also had a professional driver steering us through the waters, a marine biologist who would educate us on the history of the bay and the sealife living below, and a volunteer who....well, I'm not sure what his role was other than to try and inject humor into the tour, where appropriate. The entire tour was about 2 hours long. Thankfully, we learned right off the bat that the Bay itself is very shallow - only about 6 or 7 feet deep. Still, we spent most of the ride worrying about the kids sliding overboard, and, therefore, limiting them to where they could move around on the boat. We did loosen the reigns a little about half way through. Other than the panic that accompanied that, it was very cool. We saw one dolphin, although from a bit of a distance. We got to stop on a desolate island in the middle of the bay. We cruised past the bird Rookery. We also got to see some sea creatures first hand, as at one point in the tour, the crew trolls the ocean floor and brings aboard whatever sea life they captured. On this trip, we saw a Puffer fish, a pinfish, variegated sea urchin and several other interesting species. The best part was the next day when both kids were able to share with us things that they learned about those sea creatures from the tour. Who says kids never listen?