Sunday at the beach

 One of Sven's birthday wishes was  to go and see the wild Manatees of Florida, but how do you go about this? There are two main areas of Manatee activity and one is in Tampa and the other in the Mosquito lagoon. So I goggled an area where the girls could lie on the beach by the sea and us boys could use the Kayak or fish from the side of the lagoon. I found such a place to be the Canaveral national seashore area just south of New Smyrna beach. We left early as this was about an one and half hour drive. When we got there at about 09h00 the beaches were still empty and the wind was pumping with a slight drizzle. This did not deter us and Michelle and Amelia went to the beach and the boys went to the lagoon to fish. We caught a couple of bream (Stompneuse) and suddenly the monster appeared right before us. It was a gentle giant of about 500kg, a real life Manatee. It actually just nonchalantly swam right under the jetty where we were standing. We all thought this was luck and could not believe it, but then another two appeared from nowhere to investigate us. Once they had left I saw another couple in the distance and sent Sven to get the girls. Just as they got there the next lot came to feed and investigate us at the jetty. This was just amazing with these gentle giants just 10 cm away all relaxed and investigating. Another "once in a lifetime" Bucket-list experience ticked off.