Fun Times at the Manatee Park

Here is the first of what I hope will be many blog entries about our recent trip to visit Angie's parents Bill and Linda at their winter home in sunny Florida.  On our first day there, we went over to the Manatee Park, located near Fort Myers.  This park is located near a power plant, and the warm water near the plant provides the manatees a place to go when temperatures cool down.  There had been a cool spell right before we arrived in late December, so the place was full of manatees.

Here are a few fun pictures we took at the park:

Here, Noah is gently reminding us not to feed the alligators.  Contrast this to a picture taken at the same spot the previous March:

I also like this self-portrait we took back in the nature trail.  Angie is quite adept at self-portraits.

Finally, here are a couple of pictures that we took near the big manatee statue.

As you can see, we enjoy taking pictures near large, inanimate objects (see here, here, here, and here).

This is a great place to spend a short while if you are in the area, especially if there is cool weather.  Along with watching manatees, they have a butterfly garden, picnic areas, and a playground for the little ones.  It is also very affordable - all you have to pay for is parking at $1/hour.

This was just the beginning of a great trip, and I thank Bill and Linda for bringing us down.