It was just the five of us on the boat, so we got an extremely personalized tour. Our guide knew (it seemed) everything there was to know about where to find the dolphins, and he took plenty of time to explain dolphin behavior to us when we found them. The dolphins were, um, busy when we found them, so we left them in peace while they finished their business. Funny story: The guide was trying to be sensitive to the fact that at least one of our children is still pretty young, but once Henry busted out with "Those dolphins are DOING SEX!" the guide kind of shook his head and recalibrated for a more mature audience. Anyway, eventually the dolphins finished up, and then they were ready to play in our wake for a while, which was so much fun to watch. It was even better than at Biscayne, I would say, because this boat was smaller, so we were much closer and had a better view.
After we finished playing with dolphins, we tooled around the islands for a while looking at and talking about birds. We saw great and snowy egrets, pelicans, cormorants, tri-color herons, and even an osprey.
Once we had checked off the dolphins and the birds, it was time for some shelling. Our guide took us to an uninhabited island that is just teeming with shells, and within 10 minutes, the boys had found dozens upon dozens of Florida fighting conchs. They found so many that our (one) bag was filled right away, and we still had enough left over to have some fun spelling out our name. We also found tons of other rare (to us, at least) shells, and our guide helped us identify them and told us a little more about the shells and the creatures that used to inhabit them.
And then. AND THEN. On the way back at the end of the tour, we spotted my number one wish list bird: the roseate spoonbill. And then we saw more. We slowed way down and got to admire them up close, and then my heart filled all the way up and I just died happy right there on the spot. Well, ok, maybe not, but I was pretty darned thrilled.
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