Tampa Bay & Venice, FL

I wanted to see a manatee, and even tho we live and work in laceType w:st="on">LakelaceType> laceName w:st="on">ManateelaceName> laceType w:st="on">State ParklaceType>, we don't have any manatees close by.  We USED to, since Lake Manatee was actually once a stretch of Little Manatee River, however, as you all know, manatees do not live in lakes or ponds.  When they dammed the river to create the lake (dunno why they did that), obviously, we ceased having manatees in the park. 

We'd heard that Tampa Electric Co has a manatee viewing station at their discharge, and it's not ar back up the road, so, off we went one day, aftr chores were done.

Boy, did we pick a great day for viewing!  Bay water temp was 68*, which, if you're a manatee is kinda cool.  The discharge area water temp was 74* and they were flocking in, like there was free lunchor something!  I counted up 49 moms, dads & pups before I lost track of whomI'd counted or not.  One day, they said they'd had as many as 300!!!  We walked out on the pier, thru the mangroves, and watched eagle sting rays flying on by in herds!!!  It was really, really way cool. I took a couple of pictures on my phone, but have no way to xfer them here, but it didn't really matter, as the watr was so dark and the sun so bright, the glare prevented anything from really showing up.  it was a fun day, and since it was FREE, it was even better. 

Oh - I'd almost forgotten...they didn't open till 10 am, and we were about half hour early, so we had ridden down further to a local nature preserve.  THAT was cool too, as we watched about 3 bald eagles riding the wind.  One was immature, and just learning to fly.  That was first time we'd seen one!

Today, after doing chores, it is a whoppn' 76*, so we decided to take another ride, this time to the beach at Venice.  The air card is allowing me better reception all along the highway than we get at our campsite, so I've been catching up on email and embroidery shopping (Dick hates that!!) and now, we're actually here at the beach.  It's not at all like we remember; seems word has gotten out about what a nice place this is, and it is jammed!!  Parking looks to be at a premium, but at least it's still free.  We have arrived, tho, and parked, and now I have only computer battery for juice and Dick is patiently waiting for me to finish so we can go look for more sharks' teeth.  Hopefully, we'll get a touch of sun, too, and not be so very pale.  They tell us that you can tell a tourist because they're the ones with the tan — natives are busy WORKING, so are all pale.  Yep, that's us.  Just worker-bees.  never an end to the list of things to do at the park, and if we begin to get close, Ed comes up with more projects for us to complete.  Job security, fer sure.

Well, I'm trying his patience, I'm sue (so what's new!!?), but we do want to wish you all  SAFE and very MERRY Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year!!!

Hope the snow isn't too deep where you are — I'll take this sunshine ANY day!!

Love to all!!
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