Ocean Discovery Center in Ft. Pierce

One of my goals this year is to get back on the field trip bandwagon.  I have fallen off of it the last couple of years as my oldest has approached and completed a year of homeschool high school.  I don't want to sound as though I'm depriving my children of educational opportunities.  I'm not.  But we do have a specific set of places we tend to enjoy experiencing over and over and over.  Enter the "staycation" that was my sneaky way of attempting to ease us all back in to exploring places we've never been.

How we've never managed to make it to the Ocean Discovery Center in Ft. Pierce is beyond me.  We had such a wonderful time I actually forgot to take photos and remembered as we were leaving to run back inside and snap the one lone shot above.

Even though the center is on the smallish side, there were plenty of displays and activities to keep my crew occupied for about an hour and a half on the day we visited ... a touch tank, skeletons to observe (two dolphins, a manatee, and a sea otter), interactive exhibits with touch screens and fun questions, a short film in the theater, a microscope complete with drawers full of Florida shells and such, tanks full of tilapia and apple snails being raised on the outer porch area and more. 

Admission to the center is free.