Monday, May 30 - Today we took a road trip about 75 miles north to Crystal River and Homosassa Springs State Park. John had heard/read about someplace we could swim with the manatees, so that was the incentive. We all just enjoy driving around anyhow, so it was a good trip. Entertainment along the way was Joe pronouncing the Florida city names that came up on the GPS (Chassahowitzka gave him a little trouble). We got to Crystal River and found the beach, but so had everybody else!
I walked along the edge of the water, but our two biologists thought there was way too much bacteria in this water! So we left there and headed to Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. We couldn't swim with the manatees here either, but there was a place just down the road where we supposedly could (we did not go there). This was a mini-zoo, and it had a large natural habitat bird area (yes, Bridgette's sandhill cranes were here, along with a couple whooping cranes), and also gators, a reptile house and a mammal area. Here's a few pictures from this wildlife trail.
There was a black bear here too, but he was far away and sleeping, so Joe didn't take a picture of him. They also had red wolf, Florida panther, Key deer and river otters, to name a few. Then we watched the manatees. They fed them cabbage, and we got to see them underwater as well as from the top. There were a lot of fish here too, several different kinds which our marine biologists identified for us (like we could ever remember those names). The brochure says 34 varieties of fish have been identified in the spring, from which millions of gallons of fresh water "bubble" every hour. There were several manatees and they swam right under the floating observatory we stood on, so we got to see them very well.
Just past this area was a public boating/swimming area. It was too crowded to actually drive a boat through, but there were lots of them anchored and people swimming around in the water. I would have had a hard time forgetting about those alligators not very far away!
Of course, the tour is never complete until after you go through the gift shop. But I did find a manatee to add to our traveling zoo. And it's probably pretty close proportionately!
We headed home, with a stop at Pizza Hut so we didn't have to cook and clean up. Bridgette and Tyler were eager to get back to their boxing, and since Bridgette doesn't run on Mondays, Tyler got out of that part of the boot camp. So far, she's left Joe and I pretty much alone, but we know any day now we are going to be expected to report in. Not that we don't need it, but we're on vacation, remember!
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