Turtle Love in Jupiter and West Palm Beach

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Visiting my parents in Florida is always a treat, but this trip had one downer which was the ocean was too dangerous to swim in for the weekend I was there. Advisories were all over the news, danger flags were blowing in the wind along the beachfront, and so on. Riptides, apparently.  But this didn't stop the surfers.  The waves were especially strong and surfers of all ages and genders were out by the masses.  Aside from walking along the coast, swimming in the pool, bonding with my parents (I was in town for my dad's birthday), and marveling at the surfers by the Juno Beach pier, the highlight of my trip was visiting my favorite Jupiter spot, the Loggerhead Marinelife Center.

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This center is an amazing educational and rehabilitation center for turtles and other marine life. Essentially, they rescue creatures who've been damaged or injured (usually from motorboats, oil spills, or other human folly), treat and rehabilitate them, and then return them to the wild.  Usually they keep one or two on the premises for longer than necessary for education purposes.

I've been there before when the place was filled to the brim (or the little pools were,  rather) with baby turtles rescued from the beach just feet away from the center. This time there were about 5 very large turtles swimming around their pools (they each get their own).  A huge leatherback sea turtle made the nice subject for a little film I captured with my camera, looking at me with its soulful eyes while it swam in one place. Pleasant, unobtrusive docents hang out at the center and tell the stories of each turtle's progress and how they each came to be rescued in the first place.

There weren't any there when we were there that day (a weekday afternoon), but I'm sure children adore this place. The sizable, marine-oriented gift shop is heavy on the kids' books and toys.  I should mention too that the center is part of a larger park, with nature trails, picnic pavilions, and of course the beach.  Visit their website: Loggerhead Marine Center