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Not satisfied with mouse murder, Maddy set her sights on more exotic prey at the park the next morning.
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There are tons of turtles vibing.
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Spent some quality turtle time in La Plaza with my favorite sunbather.
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Walked Maddy in La Plaza and was happy to see the turtles were back in the pond!
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Spotted this handsome turtle sunning in La Plaza on Sunday.
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Maddy was very interested and gentle! They had some cute interspecies nose bumping before moving on our way!
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If you stoop down next to the pond and move slowly, the curious painted box turtles will come up to say hello!
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Memorial Day Monday morning walk through La Plaza garden with Maddy.
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...and then they let him get on with his garden exploring.
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I got to feed him some greens...
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ALSO, this woman and her son were there with their pet tortoise!
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Spent some time hanging with the turtles in the park.
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...and noticed that someone had hung up an old turtle shell from one of the turtles in the pond. :( Rest in peace, buddy.
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...and on the way to the house, we stopped off at a neato nature park so Grant could see one of his friend's painting that were on display. They had turtles there!
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Adorable.
christmas in florida
December 22, 2011
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...but then came out of her shell a bit when she realized I meant her no harm. Look at that snoot-snout!
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Hello, gorgeous! She was a little weary of me at first...
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...when I spotted this beautiful Florida softshell turtle next to the bike path!
christmas in florida
December 22, 2011
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We spotted a bunch of turtles on our way out.
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Oh, hai!
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I've seen whack a mole, but never whack a turtle!
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This is a good sign.
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And turtles! Mmmmm.
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...swam REALLY close to us to check us out. And after he made a few laps, he took off.
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A couple minutes later, while swimming over a sleepy reef, we ran into this guy! A beautiful green turtle! He popped up over the edge of the reef...
Here's a vid I shot of him swimming off into the blue. Goodbye, Mr. Turtle!
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Turtlelor making friends!
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Hahaha.
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"OH HAI! I CAN SHAKE UR FLIPR?"
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Here we are a little further back in the part at one of the smaller tanks that was filled with younger turtles.
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So cute.
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Engh!
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...a turtle farm! Look how many of them they're are (and this was just one of like 100 different tanks!). We had mixed feelings about this place. About 40% of the turtles raised here are released into the wild. The other 60% are raised and sold to food processors (boo!) because turtle is a national delicacy. But I guess short of turtle-eating being made illegal, at least they're doing something to keep the turtle population thriving and keeping fisherman from overfishing the population.
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But seriously, how could anyone look at one of these guys and think "Mmmmmm! I bet he's tasty!"
This time I managed to get him on video! I love how he causally swims over to check me out before swimming away! (You'll probably also get a kick out of listening to me make noises into my regulator trying to get his turtle-attention underwater! Hahaha).
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He seemed pretty curious about us. He swam a few circles around us (coming within touching-distance plenty of times)...
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...and then slowly swam away.
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After our initial descent, we had our first visit from a turtle!
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It's a pirate turtle with a peg leg! Awwwww! According to the internets, in 1503 Christopher Columbus was the first European to come across the Caymans and he named them Las Tortugas (the turtles) after all the sea turtles in the water around the islands. And later on in the 1800s, the islands became a popular hideout for pirates. So you know, someone there got creative, combined the two things the island is most well-known for, and VOILA! You've got yourself an airplane with a giant, peg-legged pirate turtle!