The Race Was On

Monday night we met at the hotel restaurant to release a pair of juvenile turtles back to the Caribbean Sea from the rehabilitation center.  Prior to their release we took turns taking pictures of each of us holding our new friend, who we named Slappy.  The biologist explained how to hold the turtles safely, and Lisa aptly explained that it was like holding a cheeseburger.  Slappy kept flapping his flippers while all 37 of us had our 15 seconds of fame.  Then Slappy and his partner in crime, Fred, were set in the sand with the kids and teachers lining their path to the beach.  It was magical to watch them fight their way through the uneven dry sand, leave their flipper prints in the even sand, and then gracefully fly through the water.  We rooted them on, and somewhere in the middle of this I lost track of which one was which, but it didn't matter who one.  We won.  We got to see these beautiful creatures go  back to where they belong  It is something that I will never forget and am proud to have done.  The pictures tell the whole story.

Leslie