Manatee Park Revisited...

As I mentioned before, when friends visited us last October we went to a local park that is built around a tributary of the Orange River. Power plant effusions warm up the water so Manatees come to hang out and you can see them from the banks.

When we were there last time, the park looked like this:

It was still summery around here and things were nice and lush and definitely semi-tropical, so there wasn't really any need for Manatees to be visiting.

And even if it hadn't been too warm, there was this:

...scaring away any potential Manatee visitors.

Yesterday that same view looked like this:

No giant crane, but see how brown everything is? That's because we had a hard freeze a week or so ago and it killed a lot of the green stuff. On the plus side we are getting to introduce the girls to the concept of "fall" since all the leaves are off our trees, on the down side we are also getting to introduce them to the concept of "death". Yippee!

Anyway, the point is, it's been really cold for Southwest Florida, so the manatees think this little tributary is the Best Place Ever, with the result that the park is packed:

I have several more pictures just like that one. They even had people directing parking for the first time that I have ever experienced. So what was my point again? Oh yeah. We came to see the manatees!

See?

Oh wait, that's right. Lilli was much more interested in these:

That's ok, Lilli, Mama likes flowers too.

I was really there to see these though:

Dang blurry camera. Much better in real life.

These are the best shots I got of something Manatee shaped:

Just ignore the uncooperative children in front.