Another Busy Day

Fort Myers, Florida

Yesterday morning, we got up early and drove a short distance to Manatee Park.  Warm seawater discharged from the plant make this a popular hang out for both manatee and tourists during the cool winter months. 

There were already quite a few manatee there, but many more will be arriving during the next few months.  The county has made a real nice little park with a boardwalk, manatee viewing areas, kayak rentals and butterfly garden.

The manatee were pretty active. 

Lots of pretty flowers in the butterfly garden.

I got a good scare while walking along the trail.  Look what it was.

I had walked right by this fake gator a few times, but this one time it surprised me and I let out a little yelp and jumped back.  It sure startled me!

We went back home, fixed some country ham, eggs and grits and messed around the house for a few hours.

About 2pm we decided to try out the little park nearby and go for a short kayak trip.

It’s another nice little county park and on the Great Calusa Blueway paddling trail, which has over 190 miles of marked paddling trails.

We put the kayaks in and then paddled through the shallow waters along the trail.

The problem with this trail is that it’s close to the interstate and actually follows right along beside it for most of the way.  You had to deal with the noise of the interstate all the way.

Most of the time you couldn’t see the interstate, but you could always hear it.

Unfortunately, we didn’t see a lot of wildlife, but there were lots of bushes with pretty red berries.

Initially we were paddling through mangroves, but about a mile out, it widened up and we entered the Caloosahatchee River. 

To the right of Al, you can see a drawbridge in the open position. 

The water was pretty calm and we hugged the shore and paddled towards the interstate bridge that goes over the river.

Still noisy.

This is the full-timers view of  rush hour traffic!

It was a pretty day and it reminded us how much we love this life style.  I don’t know how many times I told yesterday…..I love living in an Rv!

This was a real gator.

After our paddle, we took a short walk around the park. 

Last night, we had a  little trouble with a neighbor.  There is a permanent rv here across the street.  It’s not the nicest looking rv but we had never had any trouble with them….until last night.  They got pretty loud late into the night.  I think a call to the management here might be in order.  I’m sure there will be a few people complaining.

Today, we got a roof rack for the kayak and made a brief  visit to Koreshan State Park.

We decided to wait until after the week-end to head to Sanibel Island.  It can get pretty crowded on the week-ends.  It looks like it’s going to be another beautiful warm sunny day in south Florida.