In November of 2005, one month before officially moving to Florida, we came to Orlando for Thanksgiving and to begin the process of moving into our new home. During that visit we decided to take a trip out to one of the local parks and do a little snorkeling. Jonathan’s brother Andy and sister-in-law Amanda also came along for the snorkeling adventure (everyone else enjoyed the scenery while staying nice and dry.) It turned out that those of us that braved the water that day truly got the chance of a lifetime. While we were exploring the waters and the spring below something amazing happened-we were all of a sudden surrounded by a mama and baby manatee-they evidently swam into the spring after we had gotten there. We attempted to swim and get away from them, but they seemed more curious about us and appeared to want to play. We kept our distance, but they kept appearing. The mama manatee seemed especially attracted to Jonathan and literally would not leave him alone. There are laws in Florida about the manatees and being new to the state we were not really sure what they were, so after a while we decided that we would go ahead and leave and let them be. We swam with manatees-it is something I will never forget!
What a great memory!! You guys have such special times together.