The Florida I Love

Something brought me back to this state. I was brought here as a child, stayed in state for college mostly for economic reasons and then moved overseas. So why am I back? Why did we chose Florida? Sometimes I wonder (mickey mouse plastic, strip mall concrete, golf course-gated-cookiecutter development...) and the answer is complex. Besides the comfort of ¨the known¨ and the pull of family, what brought me back here are the natural areas: sandy pine forests, wild beaches, sunkissed grassy fields, enchanting swamps, wide winding rivers...
It is the great, beautiful secret of this entire country- there are still so many wide open wild spaces scraggling to hang on. Tampa Bay is definitely an urban area but not too far from here we've been able to find some quiet, natural spaces.
Here is a day we spent around Tampa Bay in search of natural spots:

We crossed the Gandy Bridge to Tampa and took an expressway across Tampa to 275 south in search of Manatees. I had been wanting to go to an observation center for some time since it is now winter and these peculiar, giant and docil water mammals are more likely to come out of the cold ocean and into the warm waterways of Florida this time of year. We went to an Manatee Viewing Area at the Tampa Electric company in Ruskn, FL. Honestly, it was a wierd expereince. We saw dozens if not hundreds of manatees in the bay, drawn by the water made extra warm by the electric plant.

Here you can see a bunch floating around... resting... eating...

And here you see (look closely...yes) several manatees coming up for air.
Lucky for you, you can't hear the drumming of the electric plant in the background.














It was great to see manatees in the wild but the electric plant made the whole thing rather unsettling. We took the car and decided to explore the nearby Little Manatee River State Park. It is a quiet, little known park named for a river and isn't really a place to see manatees. We walked down to see the river. It was so quiet and peaceful after the buzzing electric plant.
This is very typical natural central florida landscape:
















From here we went to the coast to take a walk on the beach and see the sunset.

So univeral...






Good Night Sun!
tired and happy
we drive
home.