Green Community:: Sandoway House Nature Center

Another fabulous nature center that we visited on our trip to Southern Florida is Sandoway House Nature Center in Delray Beach, Florida. Surprisingly, in all of the years that we lived in Southern Florida, this was our first visit to Sandoway House Nature Center. We were overwhelmed with the center, since from the outside, it looks only like a quaint beach house, but once you enter you are immediately greeted by the resident Blue and Gold Macaw, Gopher Tortoise, Florida Box Turtle and Fresh Water Turtles. Our first thought was, “Why didn’t we visit Sandoway House when we lived here?” The beach house has been turned into a fabulous museum full of a lovely seashell collection donated by Ann and Albert Becker that includes over 10,000 shells from all around the world. You can also enjoy the Microscope Lab, Library and Resource Rooms, and our favorite the Coral Reef Ecosystem.

We were in luck, just as we arrived we were told that they were getting ready to feed the Nurse Sharks, Puffer Fish, Stingrays and Reef Fish. Even nicer, we were the only people there at the time. We were able to ask the director any question that we, well, that Eben could think of. Sandoway House Nature Center has two juvenile Nurse Sharks and one baby. We loved watching them swim around, especially the baby who was extremely active for a Nurse Shark. Luckily, they also had a baby Sting Ray that was tiny and adorable. Our favorite parts were watching the Nurse Sharks eat directly out of the director’s hand and watching the baby Sting Ray. Jayson’s favorite was the giant Puffer Fish and I loved the fact that the animals tank was made from the old converted pool in the backyard.

It was a fun way to spend the morning supporting another wonderful nature center. You can adopt a Sandoway Nature Center animal here and if you are ever in Palm Beach, Florida, stop by and check it out.

What is your favorite ocean animal?

Enjoy.