Friday February 15, 2008

After breakfast this morning, we drove over to Ed's and we all climbed into Ed's car (Ed, Bet, Deb, Dave, and I). Ed took us on a lovely ride through Plant City where the trees grow over the road to make a canopy that is draped with Spanish moss - really quite lovely! We ended up at Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park where we started our tour with a quiet boat ride up Pepper Creek. We then walked over to the underwater observatory where we watch the hundreds of fish in the spring. Next we went to the manatee educational program. The volunteer was in the water with the manatees - he had a hard time keeping his footing as the manatees kept nudging him to remind him to feed them more sweet potatoes! They were quite insistent and would not stop even after he showed them the empty bucket. They were quite funny as they have a large flexible upper lip (a rudimentary trunk? as they are related to elephants) which they used to pick up the sweet potatoes. All of the animals in the park are native to Florida except for a hippopotamus which was leftover from when the park was privately owned. The hippo was made an honorary citizen by the governor so he does reside there quite happily. He (Lucifer) was quite a sight - 6000+ pounds of hippo basking in the sun (makes one want to go on a crash diet before swimsuit season!). They also had bobcats, black bears and a Florida panther. There were hundreds of birds - flamingo and roseatte spoonbill (today's blog pictures), egret, blue heron, sandhill and whooping cranes, stilts, vultures, pelicans . . . most of these were free to come and go at will, but a few were in cages as rescue birds - especially raptors like eagles, falcons, and owls. Some of them are nursed back to health and others will remain in the park as they will never be well enough to go back to the wild. We thoroughly enjoyed the park and spent much of the day there. We went for lunch at a nearby restaurant - Margaritagrille - which is totally decorated with a patriotic flair - they even serve American fries on the menu! The lunch was delicious and then Ed took us for a bit of a circular route back to Bushnell. We came back and took a walk around the park, stopping to play a game of shuffleboard - Dave and I had never played, but we did okay. When we got back to the house, we played a game of hand and foot (Florida style) - same basic game, but slightly different rules - didn't make any difference as the girls won again (way to go, Betty!). We went back to the motel, but arrange to meet them for breakfast before we leave.