Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park

For mothers day we surprised mom by taking her over to Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park.

I was pretty excited about this day, mostly because if you haven't noticed I'm super duper in love with animals!!

Not only was it an awesome time to look at cute and vicious animals, I actually learned a few things I didn't know prior to this visit.
Such as hippos are extremely lazy and just kind of lay there in the sunshine. Or how it's awkward when an owl stares directly at you without blinking, or that even the Florida Cougar is rarely scene, and when it is, it's sleeping in a tree.




Also, did I mention we got to ride along the river on a boat? Yes, that was pretty cool, and there was even a 'tour guide' who would speak through the microphone and tell us about the things we're seeing,
such as "oh that's a Anhinga bird over there" or "look at those snapping turtles over there by that rock" and so on.


Also, It was Joshua's first boat ride! It was such a fun day!! :) We also went out to eat at a Japanese Resturant afterwards, the food was good <3 I'm glad mom had a nice Mother's Day... it made us all very happy.

Day at the Beach!

great blue heron

to be honest, I never thought I'd enjoy living in Florida, but I've found many advantages, such as living so close to the beach! Never in my life have I spent sooo much time at the ocean, and I really, really love it.

today in particular, we stopped at the local beach and just hung out all day. I myself didn't get in the water, but Joshua had a blast splashing around. I found myself wandering around along the shore, snapping pictures of anything that flew by. :)

Tree Frog

We have a little tree frog living in our camper now...

He leaves every night, and comes back in the morning. And just sleeps all day.
Mom has named him froggie.
I don't know how I feel about this...

Rainy days...

I spent the day drawing... nothing special

you can see the finished drawing over here :)

Flowers!

It doesn't feel like spring until my camera lens is covered in pollen.

Turtle Turtle Turtle

I love turtles, I mean they are pretty cool dudes. But here in Florida, they are freaking everywhere, and I'm not even exaggerating. In the campground alone, I have counted almost seven in one field... just one field, there is seven of these guys.

Honestly I find this to be rather strange, I've never seen this many turtles before in my life, so it's pretty darn cool.

Archaeological State Park

Today we ventured over to the Crystal River Archaeological State Park (& another smaller park, but I forgot it's name)












The national historical landmark we visited today is a pre-Colombian, Native American site with burial grounds, temple/platform mounds, a plaza area, and a substantial midden. 

For 1,600 years the site served as an imposing ceremonial center for Native Americans. 

People traveled to the complex from great distances to bury their dead and conduct trade. It is estimated that as many as 7,500 Native Americans may have visited the complex every year. Although primarily an archaeological site, the park sits on the edge of an expansive coastal marsh. 


We had a fun day here, I especially enjoyed the little 'museum'  (sorry, no pictures) with ancient Native American artifacts, along with helpful guides as to what kinds of animals live in this area.





Today I saw a Great Blue Heron in the water, along with Manatee, and I even caught a glimpse of a Red-Bellied Woodpecker.

It was a nice day :)

Manatee in Crystal River

Apparently, something I didn't know, was that the West Indian Manatee has called the gulf coast it's home. It's a very common sight to be walking around town, along the water, and seeing groups of manatee basking in the afternoon sunlight.



(They travel in pods, which is a large group of manatee, that you can see on the right)

Manatee are Herbivores (like me!) In an aquarium, it's common to see the manatee being fed lettuce, but here in the wild they mostly just munch on sea grass, freshwater plants, and other algae.
The manatees can be found in the warm waters of shallow rivers, bays, estuaries, and coastal rivers.



Numerous times upon watching the manatee, I have seen them "playing" in the water. They'll do barrel rolls and sometimes I've even seen younger manatee swim after one another. They are generally very (extremely) huge animals, and they tend to move rather slow. These gentle and cute manatees can weight up to 1,000 lbs or more, and are an average of 10+ ft. long! The females, quite surprisingly enough, are actually bigger than the males. It's uncommon to see them out of the water, but occasionally the manatee will swim to the top, exposing their nose to the surface to inhale air, before going back down.

Hello Florida

We've finally settled into the Rock Crusher RV Park here in Florida. This campground has 500 campers, and honestly it's the biggest campground I've ever been to.

At first it's pretty intimidating, and even one lap around the campground is well over a mile in distance.
But it didn't take me long to become familiar with everything, and it's pretty cool because they even have a playground, club house, pool, and an area with horseshoes, ect.
Not to mention you get cable tv included in your rent... (win!)












My aunt is finally out of the hospital, but she's been placed in a nursing home for the time being. It took over an hour to drive down to see her... my mother spent the afternoon with my aunt while Joshua, Dad, and I all went to the beach for awhile.



I loved the beach, granted it wasn't that big, there was several guys out in the water. I believe it is call wave surfing? I don't know what it's considered, but it was pretty cool. Also dad bought Joshua & I some snacks at the gas station. I got organic mango chips and my favorite - peace tea! I loved visiting with my aunt, but I was honestly glad to finally get home after a long tiring day.

New Campground

The campground we are currently staying at has an screened-in swimming pool! :)

Oh, why hello deer

so we're just sitting there and 

oh-

why hello

what's up

Manatee Springs State Park, FL

We've officially left and moved away from Georgia, which means I am happy yet very, very sad. :(
but nonetheless, life shall continue to move on, as it always does. quite frankly.
















Our stop for this weekend was Manatee Springs State Park, which is located in Chiefland, Florida! I unfortunately got sick a few days before moving here, to the point where I couldn't breathe through my noes, my eyes were pink, my head hurt, my throat hurt, and my body was weak.

Which is odd, because I eat like a rabbit. I am super duper healthy and nothing fights down the walls of my immune system! Or at least, not usually, so when I suddenly became sick this suckkkeed.



The first day we arrived at the state park, I just slept, and when I wasn't sleeping I was watching supernatural and eating soup. I was a mess. We also had no wifi, internet, water, or television here. (At least we had electricity!)







Something I loved most about this place was how our campsite was literally dead center in the woods, right in the trees. We're surrounded by birds and forest and deer and that just makes me so incredibly happy.





Also, hence "manatee springs", the park has numerous outlets to the ocean-fed river, which is currently home to tons and tons of manatee at the moment.

The water is over 70 degrees year round and is perfect for swimming! (I can see why the manatee are currently living in these waters) not to mention how crystal clear it is, you can see every fish in this water! How awesome!





The next day, after taking a long hot shower and blowing my nose a few dozen times, I was finally able to make it out the house, despite the fact I felt so sick, I just couldn't miss this day.

The sun was shining and the air was nice and cool. Dad and I went for a walk on the wooden bridge, it goes for almost a mile through the woods, and is alongside the water.














We happened across a hawk, and got very close to it, which is the highlight of my life right there because I mean how often do you get this close to a hawk and snap such an amazing picture.

I loved seeing all of the different animals - such as turtles, manatees, butterflies, hawks, squirrels, blackbirds, fish, and the list goes on.