Manatee Heaven

Unfortunately no pictures yet.  Dave left the digital at the house and had his video camera. Won't elaborate on that conversation! Can't get any programs to upload to Utube. So for now I just get to tell you about how fabulous it was.

The first dock we went out on at Apollo Beach, there was a family of three manatees lounging a couple feet under water, and a LOT of Spotted Eagle Ray's jumping out of the water.  Saw a couple sharks in that area too.  Then we moved to the dock over the more shallow area and there were hundreds, I mean hundreds of manatee's lounging right on the surface.  Families of momma, daddy and baby rolling over on their backs smiling pretty for (those that had) the camera.  Not so many Rays there, but more sharks.  Some smaller sharks came very close to the beach and some birds tried to attack them.  Florida is a birder's paradise.  I'm not a birder but I do love to see all the varieties of birds here, from Turkey Vulchers to the beautiful Snowy Egrets.

The reason for the high concentration of manatee's in this area is that there is a coal power plant that heats the water to around 80 degrees.  Year before last when we were here we went to Crystal River where there were many manatee's (not like here though) and we canoed out with them and they would swim under the canoe... by the way... they are HUGE!  Both visits were fascinating, one for the proximity of which we could view them and the other for the massive amount of manatee's that were there, and all on the surface. 

Kaitlyn and Keeley at Sebastian Inlet

Don't know what our plans are for the rest of the week.  Dave is hoping to get in some paintball with Al this weekend.  I am probably about shopped out.... Dave would love to hear that!  Hit Michael's and Joann's yesterday.  We took the van back today.  That was a sweet vehicle to be driving around town in.... a 2010 Chrysler Town and Country....thanks to a special friend that got us a great discount at the rental company.  Now we are looking at probably renting something to get home from the airport as nothing else has materialized. 

I'm not sure what the name of this plant is, but when the Spanish came to the coast they dried these and used them to write on.  They grow abundantly on the beach along with the Sea Oats.

 

Sea Oats are what keep the beach from eroding and they are protected as they have been dieing off.

I've been surprised at the lack of anything blooming this year due to the frost.  The palm trees are all scraggly and dead, and nary a blossom to be seen anywhere.  But I am sure that it will pop back soon and be beautiful once again.  We've still run into a gator here and there.

 

If you look along the edge of the water you will see one here.  We also saw several armadilla on the road in to Cape Kennedy but we were moving too fast to get them on camera.  There were also a couple of turtles but I didn't actually see them, the girls did.