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I apologize for the gap in posts. I had a pretty busy weekend, highlighted by a trip to Blue Spring State Park. Stephen arranged for a two-hour boat tour down the St. Johns as part of a belated birthday gift. The tour was scheduled to start at 10 a.m. sharp, but we got there right at 10 and had to run to catch the boat, which was being untied from the dock. (As it turned out, the boat was tied to the dock at both the stern and bow, unbeknown to the captain, so we would have had another five minutes anyway while she and her attendant figured that out.) It was bitter cold and breezy Saturday morning but otherwise sunny and beautiful. The captain was incredibly knowledgeable about the wildlife we saw and had an amazing eye for any little camouflaged bird or creature hiding in the grass and trees. I love learning about wildlife. If I could just take ecotours as a career, I'd love my job. About halfway into the tour, we crossed out of the official boundary of the state park and into the city of DeLand (or was it DeBary?), even though we were still in the marsh. There were a few houses along the shoreline, and one shanty was actually floating on the water among the cypress trees. The property next to the shanty was for sale; the "for sale" sign was nailed to a cypress tree. Stephen and I discussed why someone would want to buy that. Would you live there? Or would you keep it for your own personal fish camp? I actually thought it might be cool in a way to live there, though the critters during the summer would probably drive me mad. But it got me picturing myself in bibbed overalls and straw hat, sitting on my front porch holding a cane pole as a raccoon sits beside me. It's a dream of mine to live in a remote, quiet, natural area (thus my strange fascination with the South Pacific) -- with a broadband Internet connection, of course.
Anyway, the highlight of my trip was getting to see manatees. I had never seen them there before but I knew they stayed at Blue Spring during the winter to stay warm. (I had been to Blue Spring once before to go canoeing and toobin' -- during the summer, when people can swim there, bring their coolers, families of 10, oy -- but that's another story.) The manatees were awesome. I ran up and down the boardwalk like a kid in a candy store trying to see them all. There was a sign on the boardwalk naming some of the regular winter visitors, along with their identifying scars. We identified Dana, who had a little pair of twins following her, and Flash, who had a line of horizontal scars along his back, like railroad tracks.
I took a ton of photos, which I'll put here when I get some time to upload them.