Manatee Festival

This past Saturday Mike and I drove up the hell that is US 19 to attend the annual Manatee Festival. It was nice to get out of the "city" for a beautiful day in Florida. I must say, it was amazing to see a line of demarcation on US 19--where the seemingly endless array of strip malls and Wal-Marts ends and the trees begin. I almost let out a breath of relief.

The Manatee Festival itself was a bit of a letdown. It was more like a flea market, complete with a Jimmy Buffet sound-alike contest. Never will I forget Captain Susie shouting "Salt! Salt! Salt!" along to "Margaritaville".

After this, we drove over to the Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park to continue our quest for a manatee. Here we were lucky, because some of the injured manatee are safely kept year-round. The most exciting part is an underwater observation tank--this allows you to really see the sea cows up close. This was the highlight of the day, as it is such a nice park, zoo almost, with a variety of native wildlife.