Myakka River

Myakka RIver

We stayed at Myakka River, one of Florida's oldest and largest state parks, just for one night.  We have a longer stay planned for next year and wanted to check it out.  This park has lots of hiking and biking trails, a nature tram ride, and air boats rides. The air boats are quieter than the ones on Lake Kissimmee--I am not sure why.  It's a hugely popular park, which means lots of road traffic, so the off road trails are better. Cali, our canine companion on this Florida trip, loves to chase squirrels. She is really well behaved until she sees one of these little monsters, and then she goes a little nuts. 

Our Touring Companion

 


The first day at Myakka was too windy for much wildlife but the sunset was pretty. The second day was nicer and Dick got a picture of these white ibis' and snowy egrets.

Myakka Sunset Through the Spanish Moss

Ibis and Snowy Egrets

Lake Manatee and Anna Maria Island

Our Shy Turtle Friend

We spent five nights at Lake Manatee in Bradenton, Florida.  The best part of this campground, in my mind, is its close location to Anna Maria Island, a place we love to vacation. The lake is pretty. The hiking and biking options are more limited than other state park campgrounds we have visited this year, although we did spy this cute turtle on one of our walks. The biggest distraction was the noisy nearby drag races on the weekends. 

Lake Manatee

As I mentioned, the best part of this campground is it's close proximity to Anna Maria Island. Dick's grandparents and parents used to own homes on the island and we have vacationed here often over the years. The beaches, with their white sand and stunning green-blue water, are gorgeous, flat, and warm--perfect for walking. We went over to the island twice, once to meet Dick's sister Lynn.  Both times we ate at the Anna Maria Island Oyster Bar.  Ah, the good life!

Gulf Side on Anna Maria Island

 

Bay Side on Anna Maria Island

 

Lake Kissimmee

Bald Eagle

Adorable Armadillo

Lake Kissimmee in Lake Wales, Florida is a beautiful, remote campground. We had spent a few days there in January and liked it so much, we returned for another 5 days in February. We saw a bald eagle, and lots of armadillos and deer.  

Hello Deer

A Lovely Hiking Trail

We went on many long hikes, often without seeing a soul. The Spanish moss was everywhere, and just made everything magical when the sun shone through it.

Spanish Moss in the Sunlight

Although there were signs warning us about the gators, we didn't see any. The air boats on the lake were very noisy.  We didn't notice them in January--maybe it was too cold for them then.

No Swimming!

The campsites themselves were very private--it looked like a jungle outside our window. 

Outside our RV window

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And finally, the sunsets were quite pleasing!

The Villages, Lazy Days, and Manatees

Beautiful Log-Flatland Preserve

Windy Day at Weichens Preserve

We went to visit two sets of Aunts and Uncles who live in the Villages retirement community, which are expansive. The Villages cover five zip codes and house 110,000 people. The community offers any type of activity you could imagine--it's quite amazing. During this visit we took a hike at Flatland Preserve and walked the boardwalk at Weichens Preserve.

Just a Few of the RVs for Sale

Next up was taking care of a safety recall notice on our Navion RV at Lazy Days in Tampa, supposedly the world's largest RV center. We had quite the experience wandering the lots full of new and used RVs while the work was being done on our vehicle.

Coming up to breathe.  Can you see the little fishes
 eating the algae off the manatee's skin?

Jan, Rainie, and Dick

Our friend Rainie lives near Lazy Days, so we stopped in for the weekend.  It was fun hanging out, joining their backyard barbecue, and seeing the manatees.  

The power plant.  Look closely in the water
and you will see many manatees.

The manatees like the warm water generated by the electric power plant, so when the coastal waters are cooler (November to April), the manatees come in to warm up.

Sebastian Turtles, Birds and Flowers

Sitting by the bay today, Dick spotted this turtle. Once we knew turtles were in the water, we spotted several more.  

We also saw this curious lizard on a walk. 

Osprey

We often see osprey soaring above us, but today was the first time we saw one on the ground. This one was eating a fish.




We saw some of our favorite birds today. The wood stork was posing for us. The smaller thin, white bird is actually a juvenile little blue heron. It's hard to tell, but its legs and feet are greenish. The greyish bird is an adult little blue heron.

Wood stork

Juvenile little blue heron

Adult little blue heron

Finally, here are a couple lovely flowers to brighten your day.

Sebastian Favorites

Here are some of my favorite things about Sebastian Inlet State Park:

1. You get to see dolphins close to the shore.



2. These awesome colorful sea grapes are everywhere. 



3. You get to watch a lot of people fishing, and the birds that the fisherman attract. Here, they fish off the lower bridge and the rocks. 



4. You get to see prickly pear cacti in bloom in Florida!! I thought that was an Arizona exclusive. 



5. And of course you get to see palm trees. I like these two, overlooking the bay. 

Sebastian Times

Sebastian sunset

The sunsets over the bay are just gorgeous but I particularly liked this one because the sun looked like it was on fire!  

All sorts of creatures lurking

Dick, Cali, and I walk daily. It took us a week to figure out we could walk this particular bike trail lol. This bike trail adds some welcome variety--it's woodsy and somewhat shady. We found this little boardwalk to nowhere off the path. Dick spotted a raccoon swimming in the water. Cali was more interested in sniffing the boards.

Our hungry raccoon

We also have a few resident raccoons hanging around the campsite dumpsters. One was even brave enough to stick around our campsite while Dick was grilling dinner! We think he is used to foraging from the campers.

Our very sturdy bike rack

We brought our tandem bike and Dick's single bike and have taken several bike trips. Check out our super cool bike rack. Do you know how impossible it is to find a tandem bike cover? We biked 26 miles down A1A to the grocery store and back. We saw an armadillo crossing the road, which reminded me of the time we saw an echidna crossing the road in Australia. Echidnas move much slower than the armadillo we saw, so Dick was able to lie on the road and take a picture of it!  

Throwback picture: Echidna

 We also took a 15-mile bike trip along the bay and checked out Pelican Island, where we had our first ever tandem spill after many years of riding. Going from pavement to what we thought was hard-packed sand didn't go too well. Luckily, the injuries were minor.  

Family and Sebastian Inlet State Park

After Highlands Hammock, we visited Dick's sister Lynn and her husband John in Melbourne for the weekend.  Bonus, we got to see our niece Abby and her lovely daughter Zoey for dinner as well as our nephew Jonathan for brunch! Since we already squeezed in a visit to Ted and Wendy and their two awesome daughters in Jacksonville, we saw three of Lynn's five grown children--pretty good odds I'd say.


After Lynn's, we headed to Sebastian Inlet State Park, our home for the next two weeks. This campground is awesome because it has the lake on one side, and the ocean beach on the other. Fishing is very popular--from the rocks, the piers, the bridge, the beach, or off the numerous boats. We have been going for long walks every day and several bike rides. 

The bay

The beach

The variety of birds here is amazing--including pelicans, herons, egrets, and ibis. They stay close to the fishermen (for free handouts) in most cases! They are so beautiful.  Cali thinks so too.  





We love our site, just one row from the bay. We get a bay view from the windows of our kitchen, dinette, and bedroom. Awesome!!