Dolphin Tale and Visiting Winter the Dolphin

Saturday night, we took the girls to see the movie Dolphin Tale.

It was a very family-friendly and inspiring movie with a great cast. Morgan Freeman is one of my favorite actors and Harry Connick Jr. is one of my favorite musicians (and not a bad actor, either)! I've always thought Ashley Judd is as cute as she can be. And you know we all fell in love with the movie’s star, Winter the Dolphin!

Since we just happen to live near Winter’s home, the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, we surprised the girls on Sunday with a family field trip to pay her a visit! The last time I visited Clearwater Marine Aquarium was around 1988-89 for a 9th grade ECS field trip, and I remember it looking as shabby and dated as it did in the film. Most of the movie was shot on-location at CMA and the producers of the movie financed some refurbishing of the facility and added two new rehab pools. The sprucing-up made a huge difference! But unlike the movie, the aquarium was not purchased by a wealthy hotel owner. It is still a non-profit that owns the land (formerly a water treatment plant) where the facility is situated. CMA is not getting any royalties from the movie, though the film is generating an increase in contributions as people around the world learn about the aquarium, its mission, and its celebrity residents. Daily attendance at the aquarium has quadrupled in the last few weeks since Dolphin Tale premiered! Winter is drawing quite a fan club. If things continue at this rate, CMA is definitely going to need to expand in the coming years to accommodate its guests (as of this weekend, guests were seated in plastic lawn chairs to watch Winter’s demonstration—no benches or bleachers--and they had to go outside of the facility to use port-a-potties as there were no public restrooms inside (definitely NOT a highlight for this public-restroom-avoiding mama! Especially since Kiwi decided this week that she wants to wear big-girl panties and she has to be taken to the potty about once an hour!)).

CMA’s mission is to rescue and rehabilitate marine animals then release them back to the ocean upon recovery. I like that it’s run more like an animal hospital and educational center than a zoo or entertainment venue. The only creatures who remain at the aquarium are the ones who would not be able to survive on their own due to the nature of their injuries or their lack of survival skills. There was so much to do and see!

The girls enjoyed petting the sting rays:

and watching the sharks, fish and turtles swim around in their tanks: Precious profiles:

We met Nicolaus, a dolphin named after St. Nicolaus because he was rescued on Christmas Eve 2002. He was found beached with his mother (who’d passed away) and covered with third degree sunburn and infection. We got to pose for a picture with him as he showed off his high-flying and splashing skills (Miss K couldn’t keep her eyes off of him):

We even took a Behind-the-Scenes tour and learned lots of interesting information about the day-to-day operations of the aquarium and the filming of Dolphin Tale. We were impressed with how much of the movie was true-to-life (the set and many of the details that only locals would pick up on were accurate). It was also interesting to learn about which parts of the movie were “inspired”. Hazel and Sawyer were fictional characters and Winter was actually cared for by a large team rather than a few individuals. She was rescued off of the east coast near Melbourne and was only a 50-pound baby dolphin when found tangled in a crab trap. She was found in the winter (how she got her name), not in the summer, and her tail was not amputated but fell off on its own due to dead tissue. It took her many, many months to gain strength and learn how to swim. But she was a fighter and persevered and taught herself to swim even without a tail. Winter played herself in the movie (she’s a great actress!), and she has been a great inspiration and symbol of courage and hope to amputees and people—particularly children and disabled vets—who wear prosthetic devices. She’s also a big supporter of adoption and the Heart Gallery, an organization close to my heart! A portion of every donation to the Adopt Winter fund goes toward the Heart Gallery and helping children find forever families! Isn't that terrific?!?!

Here are some pictures from our Behind-the-Scenes tour (and some scenes from the movie that were shot in the same locations around the aquarium):
The kitchen and food-prep rooms:

Ingredients for an otter shake: The aquarium's pharmacy: The offices: Dr. Haskett's office (CEO David Yates’ real-life office): Scenes from the movie shot in Mr. Yates' office:

We saw the new rehab pool (it was empty but for a couple of sting rays when we were there). Here are some shots of the Dolphin Tale actors and Winter in it:

We also got to explore the rooms under the new pool where the Dolphin Tale underwater scenes were filmed. A new baby dolphin named Hope was rescued and moved to that pool the day of the Dolphin Tale wrap party, arriving at the aquarium in the middle of the black-tie event! She was only a few months old and was found about 5 miles from where Winter was stranded, attempting to nurse from her mother who’d passed away. Had the filmmakers not constructed the additional pools, there would have been no room for Hope at the aquarium. We had fun watching Hope swim around playing with her bubbles:

Here are some movie shots of Sawyer (played by Nathan Gamble) with Winter in that same pool:

Sawyer looking through one of the windows at Winter: Our girls looking through the window watching Hope: We even saw the surgery room:

Unfortunately, the tour did not conclude with a Morgan Freeman meet-and-greet, though we did get to look through a window and see his autographed picture:

Nor were we able to meet Mr. Connick Jr. . . But we got to see the cool houseboat that was Dr. Haskett and Hazel’s home in the movie (our girls decided they’d like for us to sell our house and move onto a boat—especially one with a crow’s nest):

The girls got to hold Winter’s prosthetic tail (it’s a lot bigger and heavier than you would think!):

And we met Winter’s real-life trainer, Cindy:

Of course, the highlight of the day was seeing Winter up close and IN REAL LIFE! We got to watch her swimming and playing with her pool-mate Panama (a deaf dolphin who was found beached near Panama City and who is nearly 40 years old!). Cindy demonstrated how Winter's prosthetic tail is put on and her daily exercise routine. Winter only needs to wear her prosthetic tail for about 30-60 minutes of exercise a day to strengthen her muscles and keep her vertebrate properly aligned (all Winter photos by our budding photographer, Miss A):

Winter really did whistle like Tweety Bird when she saw Cindy approach! Swimming with her prosthetic tail: Winter and Panama:

The B family gives Dolphin Tale and the Clearwater Marine Aquarium 10 thumbs up! We highly recommend the movie! And no matter where you live, you can click HERE (SeeWinter.Com) and watch Winter and Panama in real-time on their webcams!