Sunny Days and Manatees

Hi all!

We have started on our Grand Tour of the United States, or as Daniel says, our "World Tour." We left January 9 (a fitting day, as it was my birthday) from Camp Mother Ship and passed through these places on the illustrious I-95.

This is where we are now

 in DeLand, Florida. We are staying here because we couldn't get into Blue Springs State Park. This place is a cute hidey-hole known for its fishing. Apparently there is a resident bear or two and some deer. Haven't seen either one; we are here till Sunday. When we got here Thursday, we went to Blue Springs State Park. It costs $6 for a carload of 2-6 people. We stayed about an hour, but the view was worth it. You park and walk up to the boardwalk. There you will spot the main attraction---manatees. This is their spring run, so they come into this area, where the water is a constant 72 degrees. Nice!

The birds are called cormorants and are very popular here. They seem to be at home, checking out the wildlife all chill and all. I was impressed by how clear the water is; so much so that you can see clear to the bottom! We found out that every morning someone from the park service (state park, so not affected by the shut down) rides out in a canoe and counts the manatees every day. There are about 200 that come here every year. Today's count was 143. Wowie wow wow~!

So far the Sunshine State is living up to its name. It is nice to have two days in a row of this niceness. I will leave you with some pics of the drive to our fish camp hideaway. Ya'll come back! 😉