Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Manatees

So Ryan and I took a trip down south in Feb. It was an awesome road trip that started in Crystal River Florida and ended in St Louis. I'll explain the whole trip, but this post alone is dedicated to Florida and the manatees. Three years ago I met Ryan's uncle who happens to live in a place that sees the highest influx of manatees in the winter months. Turns out,.. you can go swim with them and he does it all the time. I wanted to swim with them. Who wouldn't right?
It took us a few years, but we made it and it was a-ma-zing! Seriously. THey were evereywhere. You had to be careful not to hit them with your fins. the little babies were so cool and playful and the moms didn't care if you were touching them. I am SO glad that we got to do it. Thanks to uncle James and aunt Joy for letting us come out. Above is Ryan with a baby and I'm below with a baby.
Funny anecdote for you. before we got in the water the guide told us that they really liked to be scratched under their arm pit and if we wanted them to stick around for a while just do that. Fine. Easy enough and it's true, they loved it. Toward the end we noticed some babies sucking on their mom's armpits though,...weird we thought. Oh wait,...they were nursing. that's right, manatees nipples are in their arm pits. NO freaking wonder they liked us rubbing them there. We got to second base with a whole lot of manatee that day. It was awesome!


3 comments:

Ryan said...

I am currently awaiting my prison hearing.

Rikki said...

I can't believe you got to swim with Manatee's how awesome is that. I love the part about their armpits. Amy that is soooo you. I cracked up.

Jennifer said...

The manatees! Those are the biggest, grossest things I have ever seen. Gross, Amy, gross.