~Manatees~

Well.......another WONDERFUL day!  We decided to spend the day at Blue Spring State Park.  It was about a 45 minute drive from our Daytona campground.  It was a beautiful sunny day and we were hoping to see some manatees out in the wild.

What a gorgeous place!

The water was crystal clear and there were many different types of fish swimming around in the spring.

We went for a lovely walk along this great boardwalk.

Then we saw them!!!!!!!!!!   W O W !!!!!  There were 61 spotted the day we visited.   These huge, slow moving creatures basically lie on the spring floor and come up for a quick breath about every 2 - 4 minutes unless they are resting then it is about every 20 minutes.  We had SUCH a great view of these animals and even saw some of them playing.

Beautiful view from the boardwalk.

Manatees cannot survive in cold water so they travel to warm fresh water springs.  They also like shallow water so this spring is perfect for them.  Blue Spring is the largest spring on the St.John's River.

Look at the great view we had of this amazing endangered mammal.

The wildlife in the park was incredible - we had a fantastic view of these turtles "catching some rays"!!!  Too cute!

And....look at this beautiful bird.

The weather was just perfect and we felt like we were in another world.

We ended with a nice picnic in the park and then went back and took one more look at these amazing creatures God created!!