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! :)