Beach Plants

 

My standard Florida pics generally include a sunset, some turtle tracks, and an obligatory pool-and-beach shot, but I mostly neglected any of those this year. I took a few snaps of various plants and flowers I thought were interesting and wanted to ID later, but that was about it. At least the weather was nice this year.

No Excuses Here

Mmkay, so I let an entire school year pass without keeping things up to date. Well, here's the start of several posts on what I was up to throughout the year.

First up, mermaid's purse and shells from St. George Island.. it was another cold, rainy beach trip.

Mermaids and Manatees

I recently visited my dad in Florida, and among other things, went to Homosassa Springs State Park. Besides being the "land where the wild peppers grow", it also plays permanent home to 4 female manatees and temporary home in the winter to hundreds more. The manatees graze on lettuce several times during the day, and they're pretty huge.

A fun fact I learned was that manatees, despite being so large, actually have a very small percentage of body fat. The reason their run-ins with speed boats are so deadly is that their lungs are just under the surface of their thick skin on their backs, so when propellers hit them, they literally cut into the manatees' lungs.

 

Homosassa Springs has a nice assortment of local, native animals, in addition to a retired movie star hippo who residents petitioned to let remain in the park.

  Out of the 11 alligators on site, I took notice of this guy in particular who I nicknamed Ol' Stubby.

Wet, Cold American Summer: Florida Edition

Yup, it was just that. The Family Florida Trek happened as per usual but without the usual summer weather. It wasn't particularly hot, and there were some pretty severe thunderstorms nearly each day.

Not the usual Florida Afternoon Showers, mind you, but black skies with crazy lightning and lots of rain (plus two bozos who -only- went swimming in the ocean while it was storming). Why put an end to the summer of non-stop rain that pummelled the Southeast this year?

Fortunately, it didn't rain -all- the time.. only a lot of it.

On the upside of it being cooler and cloudier than usual, I didn't broil like a lobster at all and almost completely avoided getting sunburned, so I guess that's something to be grateful for.

The Sunshine State... A Few Months Late

I meant to post about the bi-annual family trip to Florida a few months ago, but, well, life got in the way.  You know the usual excuses, work stuff, moving, and so forth. So here it finally is, just in time before the new year! Highlights from Florida.

We were down the week tropical storm Emily was due to hit the mainland, but it turned away at just the right time, so we didn't have to make a run for it yet still got our daily afternoon thunderstorm. I was mostly successful in instituting Operation Tan-Not-Burned, which means that as of now (end of December), I am back to my splotchy pasty coloring.

There were big schools of baitfish, which meant.. there were also tons of dolphins!!! One of them was less than 10 feet from us in the ocean and was playing and surfing in the waves.. unnerving when it happens, though still cool.

I got up every day at 6 or 6:30 to see the sunrise; I'd throw on some clothes (though not very many, as it was really warm even without the sun having risen), grab a water bottle, run down 9 flights of stairs, and wander across the beach checking out sea turtle nests. Sounds like a nice routine, but my rising got later and more painful each day. I am just not a morning person, regardless of how awesome the sunrise may be.

We were there during the hayday of baby sea turtle hatching season. I learned what adult and baby turtle tracks look like in the sand and what all those colors and writing mean on the marked sea turtle nests. We also got to watch them dig up the remains of one that had already hatched. There had been dozens and dozens of eggs in it!

And that's that. I haven't done much traveling since I've been back in Tennessee, though I have done a bit of hiking and camping, just minus photos. Hopefully I will make myself get back into the habit of taking pictures and writing, but until then, best wishes for 2012!