Florida - Day 4

We said goodbye to the Space Coast this morning and then spent the day largely in the car - boohoo. We drove clear across from the Atlantic coast to the Gulf coast, arriving in Homosassa Springs State Wildlife Refuge to see the manatees that the girls "adopted." We had no idea that driving 120 miles would take 3 hours because of how densely most of the area is populated. Yucky. But when we got to Homosassa - it was all good. The refuge is pretty amazing to see, and the girls watched "their" manatees for at least an hour, running the batteries dead on their cameras with all the pictures they took. There are also many other animals at the refuge in various stages of rehabilitation or permanent residency.

After a few hours at the refuge, we were off to our new home for the next 5 nights – St. Pete Beach. It’s simply beautiful here. The beach is gorgeous, the resort is nice and the gulf water is like a bathtub – in a good way. Not that tepid, I’m soaking in my own filth kind of way. Even though we arrived shortly after sunset, the girls headed straight into the water and had to be coaxed out even after it was quite dark, only to spend another hour in the pool, which felt like the same temperature as the air – about 90F. Just as I promised the girls – there would be no need to convince mom to get wet on this trip!  It was incredible to float in the warm water, looking up at the moon and the palms. We look forward to exploring this area more tomorrow.

The girls watching the manatees from the floating observatory. You can also watch them from the portion that is under the water.

I don't know how they get so huge from a diet of lettuce and cabbage.

No caption needed.

The 5th wheel.

Oops - we lost one.

Passing the time...

St. Pete Beach just after sunset.