Turtles and Fish and Rum (for some)

Today we were up bright and early at 7:30 AM. We got ready as quick as we could, had some oatmeal for breakfast since we were out of milk, and piled into our 2 rental cars. We headed up the road about 20 minutes to Boatswain's Beach, which has a turtle farm among other entertainment. We all checked in and got our wristbands, then headed out to the huge park.
First we checked out the turtle breeding pond, where there are hundreds of fully grown sea turtles (the largest weighing in at over 500 lbs. and the oldest at 68 years old) swimming around. We gave them some turtle pellets to snack on and then headed over the check out the rest of the turtle tanks, which have turtles varying in size from that of a dinner plate to the fully grown half-tonners. At one tank we all got to hold a turtle and get our pictures taken with it...they were softer than we expected, with sort of malleable bodies, and their fins were extremely strong as they flapped around. We had to rub them from the tip of their chin to the base of their neck to get them to stop flapping and calm down...the keepers said it was their favorite way to be petted. That was Sarah's favorite part of the day =]
After feeding and checking out more turtles, we headed over the Breaker's Lagoon, a freshwater pool with rock waterfalls and plenty of iguanas sunning themselves on the island in the middle. We spent a little time there cooling off, then headed over to the other lagoon, which is saltwater and intended for snorkeling. They keep some variety of fish as well as 6 sea turtles in there for everyone to snorkel with, and you can also swim up to an underwater shark viewing window. We snorkeled with the kids and Del for about half an hour, enough to circle the whole lagoon once.
It looked by then that it might begin to rain soon so we headed over to the restaurant overlooking the lagoon to wait out the rain and get something to eat. Doug got another plate of fish and chips with a pina colada smoothie, and Sarah had fettuccine alfredo and bread with a root beer. The food was good once again, and Kerri got a free piece of coconut pie from the waitress since they didn't have any of the key lime pie that she had wanted. We all shared the pie and it, too, was excellent.
After we ate some of us headed over to the nature trail and walked through that for a bit, checking out the interesting plants and the "Blue Hole," a sinkhole and cave at the end of the trail. Then we went over to the bird aviary, where we got to feed some scarlet and white ibis and check out lizards outside, including the resident Caiman and Blue Iguanas, Samson and Delilah.