Florida Parks

This last week we have done a few things to enjoy the warm winter weather here in Florida. Yesterday we visited the Hillsbough River State park. They actually have several trails to hike that are a bit more like what we are used to hiking minus the hills. But some of them were by the river so there was a view. And man you sure can see some different wildlife here in the rivers than you see in Oregon or out west. The crazy thing is that while we were hiking I was thinking I can not believe this is February. If we had been in Oregon instead of enjoying the warm day we would have been snowshoeing! Still very enjoyable for our family but so very different than what we are doing now. Anyhow, check it out!

The thing that I find kinda funny is that the people that have lived here all their lives and see this kind of thing all the time. Still say, " Oh my, look there is an alligator!" Like they are seeing it for the first time. We see them all the time even living here in town. alligators are just as at home in the waters of the city as they are in the waters of the country. There really seems to be no difference to them. I would think that they have had to have seen hundreds if not thousands through out their time here. They are all just crazy!! Any way it is still cool to see them out like this. An I love to see all the turtles too.

Here is some wildlife of a different kind! But cute none the less!
They also have a fort there that is a reconstruction on the same spot as it was back in the first Seminole wars. They have redone it as close to what they think it was at the time it was used according to the records and journals that they have from then. It was cool. In a couple of weeks they are supposed to have an actually living history thin there. I thin that we will be going back to see that. It was cool and it would be neat to see it with more people in there running it like it used to be done.



A couple of days before this trip, on Thursday actually, we headed out to a bike trail that starts not to far from our place here and goes to the next city south, Bartow. We ended up just riding out bikes to the trail and then all the way down then to the south end of Bartow to a cool city park there to let the girls play for a whilr on the playground. Unfortunately we did not take the camera with us on that trip but maybe next time. All together we rode between 20-25 miles that day and the girls did Great! I am super proud of them! It looks like Al will be getting his dream soon after all, A cross country tour on bikes! He has been planting seeds with the girls and they are starting to look forward to it as well! Crazy thing is I am sure that they could do it too!

Last but not least a couple of weekends ago we went to the Fort De Soto National Monument. It is south of Tampa and ended up being very cool!


There was all kinds of fun stuff here! We found a body of a horse shoe crab. That is what Al is holding and Keeley is checking it out. And tons of cool shells. That we ended up leaving there. Cause Kaitlyn is a very good junior Ranger and reminded us that we should never take anything from a park so that all can enjoy it that may come find it! so here are a few more of our found treasures from the park!



The last photo is of another Horseshoe crab and the one before that is Beauty Berries.
This park also had a living history thing going and we all got a chance to try our hand at shooting the bow.

And Al and the girls even tried on some of the armor!




Thanks for sticking with this super long post and I hope that you have all enjoyed the update and seeing what we have been up to these last few weeks.