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We are up and out of our hotel room before light touches the sky.

At the Plantation Dive Shop, we check in and are placed in a group with two other couples.

Per the swimming with manatees regulations, we watch a video about the manatee swim dos and don’ts.

In the outdoor changing area, I perform an it’s- cold- dance, as I strip down to my bathing suit.

Once a year we take a “winter escape trip.” A trip where we retreat  to a warmer destination to escape the miserable, East Coast, winter weather.

After years of pestering Shannon about swimming with manatees, he finally agreed that this year, we should take a Sarah Birthday Trip to the presumably sunny, warm, Florida.

Hooray!!! I finally get to live my dream to commune with sea cows.

Unfortunately it’s us, the ones who always seem to encounter crazy weather events on our trips, and this trip is no different. Florida is experiencing a cold snap during our visit.

A sigh of warm relief escapes my lips as I finish pulling on my wet suit, provided by the Plantation Adventure Center. It’s my very first time wearing a wet suit. I’m a fan. If it wasn’t for the complex going to the bathroom situation, I’d wear one to keep me warm all winter.

Our group boards the boat, where Captain Dan Browning gives us more instructions and passes out our snorkel gear. He assures us that although the air temperature is in the low 50s, the water temperature will be in the 70s.

The Captain is correct, submersing in the warmer water feels lovely.

picture courtesy of Plantation Adventure Center

The top question that I get asked when I talk about swimming with manatees is,

“What are the manatees like? Are they as gentle and friendly as they seem?”

Manatees are like big, friendly, dogs, that don’t quite understand that they are larger than you.

Although I imagined swimming with manatees to be a calm, zen-like, experience, it was more like a silly, giggly, experience, with a few,

Should I get out of the way? That huge manatee is rolling towards me like a steam roller.

picture courtesy of Plantation Adventure Center

You can see manatees from dry land, and they look big, but you don’t really understand how enormous they are until one is playfully bumping you out of its way in the water.

The wet suit will keep you afloat, so you don’t have to swim/tread water the entire time, but also be aware that the water is deep and you won’t be able to touch the bottom for an hour or more.

picture courtesy of Plantation Adventure Center

Manatees are super cute, especially when you are face to face with them.

picture courtesy of Plantation Adventure Center

We are allowed to touch the manatees, if one approaches us, but we are not allowed to chase one down to touch. It’s not an issue because there are plenty that approach us. Captain Dan is  very skilled at having us wait in certain spots where manatees will likely come to greet us.

picture courtesy of Plantation Adventure Center

What I appreciate is that the manatee snorkeling spot is a specific roped off area. The rest of the bay is allotted as a manatee sanctuary/safe area, so if a manatee doesn’t want to interact with humans, they have the entire river except for the specific, roped off space, to abide.

It was quite the adventure, getting face to face with adorable manatees. After being in the water for over an hour however, and having the cold air hitting our wet heads, our group agreed that we fulfilled our swimming with manatees dreams. We were ready to get back on the boat…or so we thought.

picture courtesy of Plantation Adventure Center

Once on the boat, we burst into convulsive, non-stop shivers. We are given hot chocolate to warm up, but this is futile. There are two other girls in our group, and the three of us can’t get the hot chocolate to our lips. Shaking uncontrollably, the hot chocolate sloshes onto our wet suits, and onto the boat’s floor. The sloshing makes us laugh hard, which exacerbates our hot chocolate tsunamis.

Fortunately, once on dry land, the Plantation Adventure Center has a shower in the bathroom. We each take a turn stripping out of our freezing cold wet suits, and dousing ourselves with hot water.

During the swim, the Captain took pictures and video. Once we are dried and dressed, we watch the video and are given the option to purchase  the video and pictures. Since swimming with manatees was one of my dreams at the top of my bucket list, I wanted to enjoy the experience without having to worry about capturing footage, so we purchase the pictures and video. It was worth it just for the cutest flash drive ever.

Swimming with manatees was a great experience. I’m so happy I was able to do it on my birthday, and check it off of “The List.”

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