Hey All,

You’re supposedly wondering what is Wicki Watchee Springs ?  It is a state park in Florida about 45 minutes north of Tampa and about 3 hours away from Cocoa Beach on the west coast of Florida.  I took my mother there today via a bus excursion.  The park has a really nice mermaid show (I will send that video as a Part 2 to this post). For some reason I lost the video when trying to edit the blog with the other still photos. So I’ll resend it separately.  You don’t want to miss that video!

The park also does an exhibit of some of the Florida wildlife (primarily reptiles:  snakes, turtles and alligators).  The alligator you’ll see in the photo is about 4 years old.  For your information, alligators grow about 1 foot per year.  My mother loved this one and wanted me to bring it back as another pet and playmate for Roxy.  I don’t think Roxy would have appreciated the playmate, especially as it continues to grow, so I reluctantly had to decline bringing it home.

The park also had a number of props, which I had fun taking various photos of my Mom and myself.

There were also a lot of Peacocks walking around the park.  I snapped a photo of one of them.

Then we took a boat ride down the springs and I got a photo and my first actual view of a manatee.  The are quite large, but very tame.  You will see a photo of it just resting in the spring.  This time of year is manatee season and a lot of them like to just chill out in these warm springs.

Also while enroute to the park, I texted my old friend Dawana from Homosassa Springs (Remember the former post I did  in mid September entitled “39 year reunion”).  Dawana lives only about 20 minutes from the park and she was able to come to the park and spend a few hours with my Mom and I today.  It was a nice visit.

All in all a fun day and a nice bus ride.