he is the star attraction but the museum is a small but very nice general natural history museum for a small town and it has some other social historical exhibits as well.
we had been out the island to have lunch along the Gulf of Mexico at the BeachHouse in Bradenton Beach... we all had grouper sandwiches for lunch and frou frou drinks with umbrellas..
we came back into town and decided a visit to Snooty would be the thing to do on a Saturday afternoon. Snooty is as I said the world's oldest living manatee. When I was a kid he lived in what was basically and oversized bathtub in the museum but later he got a brand new big tank and a whole wing to himself- now he occassionally has manatee visitors but he is still hand fed California Romaine lettuce daily by his people buddies.
this is what a manatee looks like (closest relative is the elephant)
here is Snooty in his current digs:
this is a 3/4 sized bronze model of the real guy!
a newsletter from thirteen years ago when he turned 50!
Snooty loves Phil- LOL
a booklet from the inauguration of his new home:
Lynn and the two of us goofing around by posing in the faux "swim with Snooty" cutouts...
As I said the museum has some other things besides the big guy- and one of them is an historical Bradenton exhibit which featured the bathing beauties of yesteryear from Anna Maria island.
a worthwhile stop along the way home from the Gulf of Mexico lunch in the glorious sunshine and the bright blue sky! A perfect January day.
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