Slowing Down

Alas, our adventures are slowing down a bit. School started this week and it will take us a while to get into the swing of our new schedule. However, after we've got that down I'm hoping to incorporate more adventures into the mix! :)
What will the next one be...????

FL Botanical Gardens & Heritage Village

Our park adventure this week was over in Largo at the Florida Botanical Gardens and Heritage Villlage. We chose this one because we were looking for something that was just a nice walk, not really a hike. And it had this cool historical village on site.

We did get lost on the way. I have no idea how! I was following the directions. Next thing I knew we were totally lost. We had to call Ted and ask him to get us back on track LOL.

We decided to start on the garden side, work our way through the art complex and do the village last. Jake said he wanted to save that for last because it sounded more interesting and fun. Best for last! It was a hot day too. When we went to the car to drive over to the village (because BOTH paths were closed - we walked an extra couple of miles to find that out!) it read 107!!

The bees were busy today....

Jake enjoying a rest in the shade.

This guy swam up right as we were passing by.

This one kept posing for us as he dried out his feathers.

Jake chatting on an old phone in the village.

We got to go into the house in the village, and the little church, and general store. It was fun. I was excited to see the wooden dough bowls in the houses and really, really, really hoped to find one in the gift shop. But they didn't have any.

It was a fun day, even if it was over 100 out. We came back and went for a swim to cool down :) .

Lake Park

Took a trip to a park called Lake Park in Tampa. It was a HOT day today. On the brochure it mentioned an archery area, so we took our bows just in case there really was a good spot. We just have simple basic bows, but they are alot of fun.

On the drive down to the archery area a deer ran out in front of us! I got a pick through the windshield and then it bounded off.

We got to the archery area and it was so cool. They had targets set up everywhere, and stands for hanging your bow. There were stone circles with numbers on them so you could choose how far away to stand. And there were paths throughout the woods that led to different types of targets. We had a ton of fun!

After that we drove over to the other part of the park that had the fitness trail. No trees or shade on the gravel trail. There was some scrubby stuff along the sides, but nothing to shade the actual trail. After the first exercise area I suggested we just leave and go swim. That was a winning idea!

Eureka! ... Springs

Finally, Eureka Springs was back open. This is a little park we found one day and when we got there they were closed for renovations. But today they were back open so we took a trip up there. We also saw the peacock wandering around the streets that we saw last time we drove out that way. And on the way out, we saw the females (pea fowl??) - about 4 of them pecking the ground in someones front yard.

Here's a few pics from Eureka. It is a small park. A few paths - paved and mulch, and a boardwalk. It didn't take us long to go through it, but it was pretty. We were going to stay and eat lunch, but the benches were wet. And with wet areas come mosquitoes. They did have an indoor picnic area, but we couldn't get the fans to turn on and it was a little stifling in there today.

Back from the Beach!

We had a wonderful time at the beach. Did we have any adventures? Hmmm, not so much. You know what we did all week? The same thing we do every vacation - and love it! Here's our daily schedule on vacation:

Eat Breakfast

Go to the beach and float in the water for a few hours

Eat lunch (leftovers from dinner the night before)

Go back to the beach and float in the water for a few hours; head up to the pool for a while afterwards. OR - Hang out just at the pool after lunch.

Clean up and go out to dinner somewhere yummy and fun.

Go back to the beach and float in the water for an hour or so.

Play a few games of train dominoes

Watch a movie and eat some ice cream.

The only thing that changes is where we go to dinner each night LOL. That's how we tell the days apart. For me, that is the perfect relaxing vacation.

One fun thing this year is all of the manatees we saw over on the bay side at Jensen's dock. We saw at least 8, maybe more. But we could verify 8 at one time. 2 sets were mama and baby! I've never seen a baby manatee out in the wild, and here I got to see 2!