Feeding The Sharks

Each year that we winter over in Florida, we are close enough to the grandkids that we can see them often. We take each of the three older ones (one at a time) for a two-three day stay at the condo. The youngest we took for a half day to Monkey Jungle this year. Our six year old redhead was the last to visit. What would she want to do? We knew a movie was in order. So for the third time this year I got to see Moana--and loved it again. Then came the big one. Would she want to go to Theater of the Sea or our new discovery, the Florida Keys Aquarium Encounter.

When we got her in the car, she announced that she wanted to go to the aquarium and feed the sharks. Neither her older brother or sister had ventured there. We thought her quite brave and decided to accommodate her. It cost a little extra ($18) but included a picture as well. We had seen a girl about her size feed the sharks on one of our other visits so we knew she could do it.

She enjoyed all of the other places her older brother and sister had only with a different attitude. She named all of the rays and the animals in the tidal touch pool and then tried to arrange them so they would be friends with each other.

We spent some time tossing fish pellets to the rainbow parrot fish in the lagoon and fed the rays once again mostly because I wanted her to get the idea of feeding with a wand which I knew would be the process for the sharks. Soon it was time to head to Shark Bay.

The sharks in the tank are nurse sharks which are not terribly aggressive. They had put several letters and numbers on her wristband to indicate she was to feed the sharks. I told her that was in case she lost her hand they would know which one it was. She gave me an oh-grandma look and sidled up to grandpa for the shark feeding.

The video here tells it all. It was a great experience and one she will brag about for a long time. The only question is: How are we going to top this next year? Oh yeah. She did mention Disney World.