Sunday, January 11, 2015

Manatees....Manatees....Manatees.....

2015 has started out great....we moved slow and just enjoyed life. The first Saturday of the year we spent at the beach and then dinner at a neighbors house...the next day was church and 4 to our house for dinner...and cards. Some nice evenings. Work had not been too bad and things were good. So yesterday we decided to load up our bikes for a new adventure,
I decided I wanted to see some manatees....they really migrate to certain places in FL during the winter in search of warmer waters. They don't like it when it gets below 68. I read about a place in Apollo Beach area near an electric plant where they migrate to because the plant is pushing warm water into a wide canal. We made the ride and did we ever see manatees....

These cute statues greet you at the entrance to the Manantee Viewing docks...



 And then....you walk out on the docks and see....manatees....every "hump" in this picture is a mantees back....WOW...



They were everywhere....we saw several Mommy's and babies...





It was just amazing....we'd never seen so many...I really wished I could have gone swimming with them...


It was all thanks to Big Bend Power Station ...that put out the warm water and the manatees came...but they're only there Nov-April...then the ocean warms up enough and back they go. So it's a real treat to see them.


We walked out on a long boardwalk and saw lots of fish, and more manatees...even a hammerhead shark (he was small)...it was really cool. Then we were off to Boyd Hill Nature Preserve to ride bikes.

On the way there we came across these wind surfers...it looked like some kind of competition..

 These guys were good..........


The preserve is about 6 miles of trails. Some ran beside a lake, some just through nature. They are an animal rescue place as well. They had a few birds that were there for various reasons...

This hawk was pretty...we see lots of them at our house


Loved this owl...he kept watching me...it was funny.

Some artist idea of a really big armadilla...too funny


We rode almost all the 6 miles and really enjoyed it. It was getting dark and cool and it was time to head to dinner and home.We declined the offer to stay for the 6p nite walk!! We found one of our fav places when up in this area, Crab Trap II. We had a delish dinner and headed home. ..
Ahhhh another great Saturday outing.....thank you God for all of your creations that we enjoyed today.




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