Where is Barbara Manatee?

Wow, it got cold last night! I think we may have approached the 30s so the heater was a little busy keeping us warm, but it did its job well. Unfortunately there were multiple people up during the night and early AM so it was not quite the relaxing sleep in Saturday I was hoping for. It did allow me to get some extra end of year work items in and still have time for family stuff.

We decided that today would be our visit to the Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. This used to be a private wildlife park/attraction with monkeys, bears, lions and many other animals. The State of Florida took over ownership in the late 80s and decided that they would only have native Florida wildlife in the park. They were able to get rid of all of the animals except Lucifer the Hippopotamus. The people of the area wanted to keep him around and the governor made him a Florida citizen so here he remains.

The park has a parking lot about 3/4 of a mile away from the wildlife area so you can take a boat ride from the Visitor Center down a river. This was a good way to get some information about the park while getting to see some Florida wetlands/river habitat. Only bad part was it was cold!

Once at the park we went right to the manatee area and were able to see half a dozen manatees of different sizes. There was even a mom and baby in the main area we were at. It is pretty amazing how big these creatures are but it sounds like they are also very gentle. They do have guides to take you snorkeling with them but not sure we are all up to that yet.



Mom and Baby Manatee

The park also had a lot of other wildlife including deer, Lu the Hippo, alligators, black bears, snakes and reptiles, birds, bobcats, wolves and even a crocodile baby. We all had a good time going through and seeing all the animals. Lu is just about to turn 53 in January so he was not quite as energetic while we were there. He seemed to just want to warm up by soaking up the sun. Don't blame him there!



Lu the Hippo

We decided we were starving and a local Chinese place got good reviews so we decided to go there. Everyone had a good meal except Ben decided he did not like his. Guess we have some leftovers so not too bad of a thing. We got our propane tank filled which was a little embarrassing as we did not read they only took cash. In the end we were able to scrape up all but 35 cents of what we needed to pay and I guess being in the Christmas spirit the attendant allowed us to waive the remainder.

When we got back to the trailer I was able to take a nice long nap which felt great while the kids went and played on the playground. Stacey decided to use the time to do some learning. It is nice to have some quiet time some days.

The night finished out with us watching the Santa Clause movie with Tim Allen and then the kids heading to bed.

Rock Crusher Canyon RV Park

Today we just hung around the park. Brock worked all day and I don't think he ever went outside of the trailer. The kids played pretty freely most of the day including a couple of hours spent at the campground playground.

We took Heidi for lots of walks. I checked out a few of the campground's loops. It's amazing how different they feel. The loop we are on feels like mostly evergreen trees with a few palms thrown in. The loop up above that I check out early this morning was mostly a scrubby tree with lots of Spanish moss on it. It's fun to see the level of effort some of the RVers went to to decorate their sites for Christmas.

I got a few electronic Christmas letters sent out...still working on this one...

We didn't make the deadline for helping out with Toys For Tots, but we did get ahold of a food pantry. We agreed to show up on Monday morning and hopefully there will be something we can help out with.

Late this afternoon, the kids and I checked out the clubhouse and pool area of the campground. The pool and jacuzzi are nice, but it was really cold comparatively speaking here today...like below 60 degrees...so we didn't go in the water. The jacuzzi would've felt good, but then there's that 100 yard walk back to the trailer dripping wet...uh, no thanks. We did take advantage of the clubhouse's decorated Christmas trees. Hee hee. They're a little more impressive for pics than our little pine.

 

 

 

Tomorrow, we're all looking forward to visiting the wildlife state park where we think we'll get to see manatees!

Christmas Break

I decreed that today would be the start of our Christmas Break from school. Brock decided that we should wait for the weekend to visit the wildlife park so that he could get more work done today. I don't think I made the best use of the day since I also decreed that today would be the day I worked on our holiday letter. I love doing that kind of thing and it was especially fun looking back over our pictures of the last four months. It really gives a good perspective to be reminded just how much we've been able to do these past months. The kids with tooo much free time tend to play a little too rambunctiously for Dad's work to continue stress-free. Tomorrow, I think we'll head out and see if we can't find some toys to buy and donate to a Toys-for-Tots location. After that, maybe we can go for a hike or something. We'll have to explore the area a little.

I made a yummy hot breakfast and then we spent awhile cleaning up the dishes. Once showered and dressed for the day, I worked on meal planning and shopping list writing so I won't have to think about what to cook for the next few days. Yay!

The next few hours were spent on the design of the Christmas letter and then the kids and I left to find a grocery store. We found another Walmart so Spencer did a little stealth Christmas shopping for other family members. About two hours later, we were back at the trailer and putting stuff away so we could eat dinner. Once again, we ended up eating about 8 o'clock.

A thunderstorm passed through tonight and our camp wifi doesn't seem too dependable, so I couldn't send out our letter, but hopefully tomorrow.

I forgot to post the pictures of Brynna's project of last evening:

Super cute santa hat nails.

Here are some pictures Brynna took of the Buttonwood Inlet RV Park (where we just left):

Spoonbill (?) looking at the camera. Right in the pond 20 yards from our trailer.

Heron (?)

Loved backing right up to the "jungle" - huge leaves and really pretty flowers

These little lizards were everywhere

This one has a curly tail. Cute.