The Friday Florida experience

Another beautiful day at Lake Rousseau! We had breakfast here at camp...I think! The highlight of today was our trip to Homossasa Springs Wildlife Park. I thought it would be an Alright trip. I did not expect to enjoy it so much. We left the campground and headed out. I was again following Dick, Steve and Susie, Dick was driving. We stopped for a second breakfast at Sally's on US 19/98,which was pleasant. Then we drove on to the Park. We did not know what to expect, and our first stop was at the gift shop. I purchased a T shirt. Then we got on the Boat( yeah, a Boat on the water!). We had a guided tour down a little River to where the park itself is located. The Manatee show was about to begin. Never have I seen Manatee before. They are Huge! They look like big submerged rocks until they Start to move. Then they look like moving huge rocks! I was impressed, boulders that can swim. Every once in awhile they wouldl poke their noses above the water to breathe, not often though. They can stay submerged when at rest up to 20 minutes. They mostly are at rest! The Show consists of feeding the Manatee heads of lettuce, they prefer Romaine! But they also eat cabbage and just ordinary lettuce. Their feeding frenzy was Not Frenzied at all. We went down into the observation area, where we could see them under water (Yeah, Underwater!). We did not stay long there. We wandered around the park and looked at all the birds, cougars, bears and others wildlife native to Florida. The only animal there not a native is Lucifer the Hippopotamus! He is allowed to main because the one-time Governor of Florida made him an honorary citizen of Florida. He had lived his whole life in that park and was a popular attraction. We stopped for ice cream, Dick got Fritos instead. A small squirrel came up on Dick's lap as bold as could be. Dick accidentally dropped a Fritos. Bang! The squirrel had that chip and was gone! But it came right back. Dick held another one out and squirrel took right out of his hand. That happened couple times, then Dick was out of Fritos. Susie was eating her ice cream cone so she broke a small piece of cone and the squirrel took that. All at once he was back! He grabbed Susie's ice cream cone and off he went. The whole cone! He jumped down under the table, tipped the cone over and ate the waffle part. Steve got pictures of the squirrel eating from Dick...but no one expected Squirrelly to steal the whole cone! The birds were beautiful but they made me sneeze. The cougar and bobcat looked muscular. The bears were bored as we're the wolves. There are several injured Bald Eagles in the park. All in all a wonderful day. We got back to camp around 6 or so... Steve grilled burgers, after Susie and Little Susie got back from school and Walmart. The burgs we good and we still had a lot of visiting to do...even though we had visited all Day. We came home plenty tired and almost ready for bed. Lori got up around midnight and took a shower and emailed. I slept.