One of Florida's protected animals are the manatees. They come to Blue Springs during the winter when it's colder. The water is a constant 72 degrees because of the spring water. They like that. It's too cold for me though. At peak times there might be as many as 350 manatees at this spring. The park rangers do morning counts. We have visited in the past, but we saw the most manatees on this trip. This time, we visited with some of our Florida friends, John and Jane.
Here's a manatee eating the bark off of a fallen palm tree. They took turns most of the time we were there. It must be a great eating spot for them. They are herbivores.
They spend most of their time under the water, but they come up every once in a while to take a breath.
Here's one taking a breath. I think only a mom could love this creature. If you ever read Island of the Blue Dolphins, they talk about elephant cows, and I never knew what they were. Now I know they're manatees. Yes, it is an education being in Florida.
There is a nice boardwalk path that leads to several look-outs to see the manatees. Here are Jane, John, and Bob walking. The path also goes to the spring.
This is the spring that feeds the area. The water is very clear and "warm" for manatees. There were several manatees at the spring's beginning because the water was probably the warmest there.
The dark spot over which the manatees are swimming, is the location of the spring. Scuba divers frequent this spring to explore during the warm season when the manatees are not here. Early Dec. when it was still warm and the manatees hadn't arrived and it was OK for the scuba divers to enter, a diver panicked, and his buddy tried to get him to share his oxygen, but he wouldn't so he drowned. Sad.
From the Blue Springs Park, we went to De Leon Park just to have the "all you can eat" pancakes. Our friend, John decided to be the main cook. You make your own pancakes on a grill that is built in the middle of your table. They were pretty good. They gave us regular batter and buckwheat and grain batter. We all liked the multi grain batter better.
We also got to cook our own eggs on the grill. They cooked the bacon in the kitchen.
It was a fun, unique dining experience with good company.
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