Manatee Hot Tub!

Cold is a relative term to where you're from and what you're used to experiencing.  To our visitors from the frozen north the temperatures of this past week didn't register as anything more than a minor inconvenience.  To us native Floridians, daytime high's in the fifties, with a blustery wind out of the north, created artic like conditions.  Somehow we all managed to survive.
What the three day cold snap did was create perfect conditions for the manatees along the coast to all come together at Apollo Beach for a soak in their oversize hot tub.  The hot tub is more appropriately known as the Tampa Electric Manatee Viewing Center.  It's a canal located beside the Tampa Electric Power Plant and is where clean. warm water used in the plant is discharged back into Tampa Bay.
Manatee Viewing Center
We had visited the viewing center back in December, but the conditions weren't right.  There had been a few unseasonably warm days and the manatees had made their way back into the bay where food sources are plentiful.  On that December visit we did see plenty of fish (snook, redfish, tarpon, jack), rays, and sharks but only one manatee.  A very nice retired Tampa Electric Company employee, who now volunteers at the center, advised us that viewing conditions are optimal after at least three consecutive days of temperatures below sixty degrees.

A huddled mass of manatees is sure to draw a crowd.

Since the temperatures had been in the fifties for three days we were optimistic that this time there would be plenty of manatees frolicking in the warm water.  Even with the high expectations, I don't think in our wildest imaginations did we think there would be so many of these warm blooded, vegetarian,  mammals gathered in one place.  To the delight of hundreds of observers, there were huge adults, juveniles and newborns, some of which were still nursing, enjoying themselves in the warm water.  It was hard to tell who was having more fun, the manatees or the spectators.  I see manatees occasionally when I'm paddleboarding around AMI and they always bring a smile to my face.  Seeing so many gathered in one place was amazing.

Every bump is a manatee and there were at least twice as many more just under the surface

The Manatee Viewing Center was just the first of three planned stops on our day long fun fest.  We kept the car pointed north up US 41 towards Tampa.  Our next stop was a no brainer.  It was getting near lunch time and we were in Tampa, which could only mean one thing....Cuban Food!  Tampa has a large Cuban population.  This means there are plenty of places to enjoy some great Cuban food.  I checked to make sure the place I had in mind (La Tropicana in the Ybor City section of the city) was still open.  It was, and immediately my taste buds began dancing with delight and my brain filling with memories of eating there so many times in the distant past.
We shared a Cuban sandwich, deviled crab, stuffed potato, black beans, yellow rice and a nice dish of shredded beef cooked in a tomato sauce with onions, peppers and spices.  It sounds like a lot of food and it was, but we made it disappear!
La Tropicana
As we were eating, we reminisced of days gone by when you could get a Cuban sandwich for less than two bucks and a deviled crab or stuffed potato would set you back a quarter.  The food was really good although the restaurant looked a little old and tired.  I guess it happens to the best of us!
We finished the day surrounded by more sea creatures at the Florida Aquarium.  As we often do, we took advantage of the reciprocal membership offers with our season passes.  This time the offer was 50% off with our Sunken Gardens Annual Memberships.  Keep these opportunities in mind if you enjoy these types of outings.  Most season passes have some really great deals.
Florida Aquarium
It was a great day of enjoying just a few of the amazing things there are to do in the Tampa Bay area.

Just a few of the sights from the Florida Aquarium