We knew that August in FL isn’t exactly prime manatee viewing season, but decided to give it a go anyhow. We had booked the 6:15 tour, and in spite of it having rained (and hard at that,) and continued chance of storms all day, we headed off to River Ventures. I had called prior to their opening time and left a message inquiring if the tour was still a go. Gloria kindly returned my call and said all of today’s tours were going off as scheduled. Upon arrival we were greeted by the friendly, knowledgeable staff who got us checked in and gave us the swimming with manatee “rules,” and showed us a short video. After that we suited up in wet suits and headed to the boat. It didn’t take Captain Rhonda and JJ our guide, long to locate one of the gentle giants. In fact, there were 4 in this particular group, one of them a calf. We stayed with this group of manatees for the entire experience, watching them swim back and forth under a dock and even getting “pushed” out of the way by one of the larger ones. JJ was awesome, even though my husband and I were the only 2 of 8 passengers on the boat still in the water, he allowed us to stay with those several manatee until we were ready to climb back in the boat. I cannot possibly say enough good things about this experience. One of the features we appreciated the most was that we didn’t have to take a camera along. That JJ was the one taking the pics really allowed us to concentrate on what we were seeing rather than worrying about getting the shot. If I ever decide to swim with manatees again, I would definitely go back to River Ventures.