Today is our anniversary.  We had big plans but life interrupted.  Instead we did something simple and we had a great time.  The something simple…. we went over to Florida’s Nature Coast (west side of Florida) and stayed at my mother’s winter house.  She’s not using it right now so we took over the joint.  We also took Anna Grace along….. so much for the idea of "romantic getaway".  But it just worked out best that way.  We headed over there yesterday and spent last evening touring around Cedar Key.

Sun going down over the bay at Cedar Key.

Anna Grace throwing rocks

Watching the Brown Pelicans

Sunset.

Today we went to Homasassa Springs State Park.  In the 50’s and 60’s this was a theme park.  Now it is a great place to see "Old Florida" and see the manatees as well.  There are a few state parks in Florida that started out as theme parks and they are great places to visit. 

A manatee that kept swimming by. The white marks are prop scars from getting hit by the props on boat engines.

Homosassa Springs is also Florida’s only state park that has animals.  The park is used as a wildlife rehabilitation center.  They rehab animals that are native to Florida and then release them.  Some do not do well after release and those end up living out their life at the park.
All of the animals in the park are native to Florida…. except one.

Lu the Hippo.

Lu was living here when this was a theme park and spent the earlier part of his life as a movie star.  He’s been in many of the Tarzan flicks and things like that.

Now back to the native animals…..

Aligators (I felt compelled to show this Gator my Tomahawk Chop!)

Black Bear

Flamingo

Two peas in a pod.

On the knitting front….

I took the Flower Basket Shawl with us on our trip BUT…. I didn’t take the pattern.  Just the shawl in progress.  I know…. it wasn’t my brightest moment.