Springs, Pancakes & Manatee's

I'm still tired from all the fun we had yesterday - I'll tell you some about it and then you can go check out the pictures that I just posted at Picasa - they tell a better story.

Our day out began at 9am - needed to get a early start to a busy day! Eight of us, Helen & Bill, Bob & Pam, Henry & Anne and Dean & I headed to our first stop for the day - De Leon Springs State Park. What a pretty park. The springs are surrounded by a concrete wall and they have made safe shallow swimming areas for children. If you are a swimmer you can swim anywhere and if your a diver, it must be a good diving spot. I heard the center of the area is about 60 to 80 feet deep - where the spring is. The water is a constant 72 degrees and we did see some divers and swimmers. The outside temperature was in the high 60's to low 70's while we were there.

The main reason for going to De Leon Springs State Park was to eat at the restaurant. It's really one of a kind - at least as far as I know. They are known for their pancakes which the patrons actually cook themselves. The griddles are in the middle of the tables. We had a really fun time having a late breakfast, after a two hour wait! They cook and serve the breakfast meats and we cooked our pancakes. They gave us two pitchers of pancake mix, one was buckwheat and one regular mix. The pictures I posted tell the story. The pancakes were delicious!

After eating we left for our second destination for the day - Blue Springs State Park. You will notice that I put the wrong name on the photo album - it was not Manatee State Park!

The park was full when we arrived but after about a 15 min wait we were able to get in and found two parking spots not far from the springs.

We walked to the platform viewing area and saw lots of fish and finally spotted two manatee's across the stream. We were told that there were a lot on down stream near the river so off we went in search of manatee's.

We found them and more! We saw a albino alligator, lots of fish, birds and manatee's. It was interesting to watch the manatee's swimming around. Sadly, most all of the manatee's we saw had scars on them from boat motors. One big one even had half of his tail missing. I wish there was a way to protect these gentle mammals from being hurt this way.

From Blue Springs we followed Bill & Helen to a RV park where they had friends from the Montana Owners Club staying. It was after 5pm when we got there and most of us were hungry again and wanted to go eat so we went to a Greek Italian restaurant that their friends recommended. Oh yes, they went along. After a good meal, we headed back to our park and finally got home close to 9pm. A long fun day had come to a end.

Today we are all gathering at Helen's or at the clubhouse for a turkey dinner. We are all bringing something as a side dish. It should be some good eating and more good times with friends.

As for me, right now, I'm going to take a nap! Don't forget to take a look at the pictures - hope you enjoy them. Catch up with you later...Till then, Safe Travels!