I promise I'm done with Florida after this post...

But I just had to report on a few more things, like the fact that there really were alligators all over the place. These are taken from Silver Springs, which the alligators really like because the water is so clean and clear. It comes out of these springs which makes it an amazing place to ride the glass bottom boats--you can see straight down to the bottom.
This little guy, just chillin' on a log...
And here is the boat we rode. The picture doesn't do it justice, but can you tell how clear that water is? The gators at Cape Canaveral, by the way, were all over the place. Our bus driver said they had an alligator problem there and some of the fences around the space facilities were not for intellectual security but to keep employees safe from the alligators!
This is us, happy in our canoe before we landed on our private beach and got attacked by little gnats. After that we were relatively unhappy, especially Maya when she had big welts for the next week. They assured us there weren't any gators in the water, said they hadn't seen any here for 10 years. What I want to know is How do they know?
Just last week we rented a paddle boat at Hanna State Park, just outside of Jacksonville on the coast. Brett was going through his work notes in the car (we had just picked him up from the marina) while I boated with the kids for a 1/2 hour. The kids and I were paddling close to the shore to get a better view of some turtles when I happened to look on the other side of our boat and not 10 feet from us I saw a huge alligator head staring at us. I pointed to it to show the kids and it went under water. We didn't see it again, and I have no idea if it could chomp one of my sweet boobahs out of the boat or not. When we returned the boat I asked the woman in charge "Was that an alligator I saw around the tip of the island?" Her nonchalant reply was "Probably Ma'am, this is Florida." I was telling Brett about it as we drove out of the park, wondering if I was seeing things. Just as I was describing the color of the eyes we saw a 6 or 7 foot gator just hanging out by the side of the parking lot.
Here is our 2nd trip to St. Augustine, lovely little beach town on the coast about 1/2 hour from Jacksonville. We met Brett's co-worker John there for the day, along with his wife and 4 year old son who were visiting for the week from NY. The kids had fun together, and a few days later we met at Hugenot State Park while the dads worked, for one final day of sandcastles and ocean play. By the time we left it was starting to get toasty in Jacksonville. Jonah actually got a little sunburn that last day.
Oh, one more thing, I caught a turtle one day in our hotel pond! The turtles were really funny--we would go out almost every day to feed Gertie and Honk Honk, the Canada geese that Maya and Jonah named. The fish were fun to feed too, some kind of perch, I think, and if you threw in a handful of breadcrumbs the fish would go crazy, you could see them swarming in and fighting over the pieces. The critters all had their own little personalities--the fish were brave in a group buy shy if they were separated, and if they saw your shadow hanging over the edge they wouldn't touch the bread. The geese would honk at Banchi until he was far enough away that they could feel safe eating, but if they didn't move quick enough the bread was all gone from the fish before they could snatch a bite. And the turtles were the funniest of all. I would describe them as curious but shy, and a little clumsy, in that they might be paying attention to one thing and ignoring something more important. They would poke their little heads up to see where we threw the bread then swim like crazy to get there before the fish got it all. If too many fish were in a group the turtles would get scared and dart away. They were easy to lure close to the shore, and one time I just reached down and grabbed one. It was about as big as a dinner plate. I carried it up to the shore a little ways and we fed it some bread, after it brought it's head out (because it was too curious to keep hidden). It ate quite a bit, I think it was glad to not have to compete for the food, but as soon as I let go it ran back to the water. We discovered that they liked carrots and lettuce too.
We will miss that great little pond--it was beautiful! Also the birds--pelicans were everywhere and also all sorts of egrets and herons...big beautiful birds that we aren't used to seeing in such quantities. I love the turtles too, they are sweet and fun to watch. I guess we will miss the great weather and the beaches too. We would love to go back again some day, it was quite pretty.