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.

evening hike

I went for a well needed hike over to the more smaller lake. In the campground we're staying in, if you look closely you can see a small path leading into the woods. You follow it for about fifteen minutes (depending on how fast you walk, I tend to walk rather slow if I'm taking pictures, this day in particular, the cardinals were out-and-about) anyways, eventually you arrive at this lake.
Unfortunately you can only hike about half-way around it before the trees become too thick and the weeds are over grown. It was an afternoon that made me rather happy.

water

So today I was feeling a little bit blue, about the same color as the skies look.
We'd be leaving soon, and I was getting a little torn about that. Also, not to mention, my aunt is currently in the hospital. She lives alone in Sarasota, Florida. My mother called, called, and called her on the phone, but no answer for days. Finally the cops arrived at her house. She's been in the hospital since, and my mom still won't tell me what's wrong. So, we're heading down there soon to go see her.

But as of now, I'm just having fun by the water.

I kind of have this love - hate thing with water. Like I mean I love the water, I love how it looks, how it feels between my fingers, how the wind creates waves and you throw a rock in and there is all these little ripples along the surface. It's awesome, water is cool, but I also fear it.

All my life I'd have nightmares of being trapped under the water, and I don't mean one or two, it's an on-going thing that happened several times in one night. It's not just recently, either, it's been happening since I was very little. This underlying fear of drowning, of not reaching the surface. If I was swimming and the water was above my shoulders, I'd have a panic attack. But I worked up my strength last summer, and my swimming abilities were good enough I was confident of being in the water, until i almost drowned and died. But we won't talk about that now, because, look~! I went from the swamp to the lake and I found an alligator :D

Lake

I haven't been posting much lately,

the words just aren't coming and I don't have much to say.

But today, I went for a two-mile bike ride,

followed by a two mile hike around my favorite lake.

The weather was cool,

so I think most of the alligators were hiding, 

because I didn't see any.

It was evening by the time I started getting home,

I love the setting sun.

Alligators in the Wild

For me, it's become a very common sight to see Alligators in the wild. In fact, I'm seeing them on almost a daily basis. Today in particular I rode my bike down the road a few miles over to the hidden lake way back into the woods. While the weather is nice, the little ones have been poking their heads out the water. Today I saw four young ones!

Don't worry, I keep my distance and they keep theirs! I've noticed here there is the biggest alligator, who must be the dominant male. Some smaller adults, and then the few young alligators. I think it is very fascinating to observe them, and it's cool because most people don't get this opportunity.

Along with the alligators, this lake is home to many species of bird and water turtles. I don't get close enough to the water to see if there is any fish, but it's possible they live here, too.

I often wonder how old these guys are, and how long they've been living in this lake. Studies show they can live up to 50 years in the wild, that's a long time for an animal!

These fellas' are generally pretty chill, I've noticed they just love hanging out and basking in the sunlight. It's pretty cool.

Crayfish Crawl and fun at the lake...

We are living in Dublin, Virginia which is actually where Claytor Lake State Park is located! Joshua and I have been going swimming almost every evening during the week, there's nothing like chilling off in the lake after a hot humid day! We enjoy swimming at the lake in the evenings for two reasons - one it's not super hot and the sun isn't giving you a sunburn, and two- quite often there is hardly anyone there! Usually at least a few kids to play with, but for the most part it's not crowded like in the afternoon (when there is a tons of people on the beach!)

(a fish we managed to catch)

Something cool that the State Park does, is they offer educational wildlife programs throughout the summer. Some of the things we've done (so far) is made Eco-Friendly Bird feeders, learned about Owls at the "Owl Prowl" and most recently participated in what is called the "Crayfish Crawl." These little freshwater crustaceans can be found in the lake here (and are also known as Crawdads or even craw-fish.) My cousin India is the lovely lady who teaches and offers these wonderful programs, and today we started off by learning all about these Crayfish and how they live, such is what they eat, how they find food, and so on. Then we headed off to the water with our little nets and attempted to catch some crayfish!

After looking in the water for awhile, none of us seemed to be having any luck, but then I lifted a rock and there are two crayfish just hanging out in the water! A total of 5 were caught this afternoon, and I have to say it was a very enjoyable time! These five in particular happened to be small, but I've seen them grow very large in size.