A big part of any tourist experience (for me, at least) is catching a glimpse of local wildlife. People go to Yellowstone to see bears and bison. They come to my neck of the woods to spy orcas. When I was in Big Bend, it was all about the javelinas. So you can bet I wasn’t going to take my first trip to Florida without seeing some manatees.
The odd thing is that at this time of year, one of the best places to glimpse a sea cow is not a pristine nature park—but an industrial canal. The Tampa power plant uses the waterway as part of its cooling system, and as a result, cycles heated water back into the canal. The water is up to 20 degrees warmer than the winter temperatures of the adjacent Gulf of Mexico, so it attracts manatees in droves.
The courtesy of a wooden platform perched over the manatee area was lovely—and I was incredibly excited to see so many manatees at once—but I found myself sorely wishing for the kind of underwater windows they have for watching salmon in Seattle. That way, I could see for myself whether sea cows really resemble sea lasses, as the sailors of old thought they did…
Ghost domes 
Twists and turns 
Golden hour 
Just wanted to delurk and say how very much I enjoy all of your work and particularly your travel drawings. I follow you on Pinterest and it’s always a great thing when a Chandler O’Leary pin comes up.
As to manatees — they do not look at all like mermaids, it’s true, but I love that you’ve drawn the fingernails on the edge of their flippers! I understand that they share a common subungulant ancestor with elephants, and that those nails are a mark of it. Last October a woebegone manatee was rescued from Trinity Bay in Texas, where he’d gotten stranded (by the cold of the Gulf at that season) next to the warmth of a Texas power plant outtake. They took him out and trucked him to Seaworld in San Antonio, the closest sealife rehab place, where they warmed him up, fed him up and took him back to Florida, where he was released. I had a chance to see ol’ Trinidad before he went back and that’s when I found out about the fingernail thing. So much fun to see your manatee drawings today!
Thank you so much! I love that manatees have fingernails—such a cool little evolutionary hold-out. And so cool that you got to see Trinidad! I’m glad they were able to rescue and rehabilitate him.