Tampa Electric Manatee Viewing Center

On President's Day we went to the Tampa Electric Manatee Viewing Center in Apollo Beach.  After living in Florida since July we hadn't seen manatees up close.  (We think we see a few moving around in the bay near us from our apartment- but that's a far view.)

There were hundreds of manatees just hanging out in the bay.  The Tampa Bay Electric Plant keeps the water warm during the cold months, so a lot of manatees congregate here.  It was fun to see them up close moving around a little.

 

 

After, we walked along another path and we able to see a few sharks jumping and some other big fish.  This was an easy to access, free activity- and now we can say we've seen manatees.  Next up, alligators! ;)