Vacation?  I somewhat remember taking a vacation but alas it’s back to schedules and routines now and the memory is growing dim.  So I guess I should keep the posts coming while I have at least a faint memory of it.   

On Monday of our vacation GranDeb and Bill took us out in their boat for a trip down the St. John’s river to the Blue Springs Park.  This was one of my favorite things on our trip.  The kids had never really been in a boat before so it was fun to see their reaction.  And the river itself was beautiful!  The water was coffee black which was a little scary knowing what lurked in those waters but beautiful nonetheless. 

The trees there are so different than the trees here.  They have pines which we of course have here too.  But the oak trees (I think that’s what GranDeb said they were) are beyond huge and so picture perfect with their big branches going all the way up.  And I know the moss is a fungus killing the trees but it really makes everything look so exotic and beautiful.  

The park that we stopped at has a boardwalk trail through the forest and along the springs.  It’s amazing…the water is black and mossy then all of a sudden it just turns crystal clear and beautiful.  It’s a constant 70 something which means no gators and that’s where the manatees come to hang out during the winter.  There are also huge alligator gar and other fish that you can see perfectly in the clear water. 

As we were walking back to the boat Michael saw a manatee swimming along beside us.  It turns out there were two which was such a treat to watch.  It was so amazing to see something like that just out in the wild, totally in it’s natural setting. 

We also saw a few gators along the way also in their natural habitat.  Yikes!  I’m glad we just saw them from a distance.  :)  

The gray long spot in the middle is the first alligator that we saw. 

Alligator sunning on a log.


I know they’ll be mad at us someday for this but they were so sweet all cuddled up together we had to take a pic.  Unfortunately this was probably about 5 minutes before Peter started slapping her in the face or kicking her in the head.  We discovered on the trip that he get’s VERY aggressive in his sleep.