Lake Manatee State Park

Monday, March 16th, we left Lake Placid and moved about 60-65 miles west to Lake Manatee State Park near Bradenton, FL. This is a very nice campground - we have stayed here before several times in the past and really like it. Didn't take LaVerne long to find some flowers to spruce the campsite up.

We had a couple of hawks visiting in a dead tree near our campsite. We put up our birdfeeder pole and it didn't take long to start drawing customers - Pine Warblers, Cardinals, Blue Jays, Towhees, Catbirds, and Titmice (not pictured).

We also had a few critters that visited from time to time. Thank goodness we don't have Armadillos at home (yet).

There's always interesting things to ride that people take with them when they go camping. Here is a homemade three-wheeler with a Corvette engine that is in our campground!

Bob and Sandy came over on Tuesday to camp with us and we had a great time the three days they were here. On Wednesday we had the opprotunity to make the drive up to Clearwater to visit my sister Jenny and her husband Ken. She lives pretty close to her son Andrew and his family so we also went over to Andrew's house and visited with him, his wife Lindsey, and their 2-year old son Max (who we had never had the opportunity to meet). We had a great visit - wish we all lived closer so we could see each other more often.

Here's a picture of Andrew, Lindsey, & Max and another of Max and Jenny (Meemaw).

Thursday we went to the Ellington Premium Outlet Mall a few miles up I-75 and spent the day shopping (well, the girls shopped and Bob & I got in a lot of bench time in the shade). It really is a nice place -- lots of palm trees, shade, and about a zillion stores.

Today Bob & Sandy headed back home to Lake Placid and we made one more shopping trip -- LaVerne wanted a new Bible, so we went and found a Family Christian Book Store in Bradenton where she found one she thinks she will like. The rest of the day we just relaxed, watched our birds and animals.

Tomorrow is moving day again -- we're headed back to Bob & Sandy's in Lake Placid for a few more days before we head north to Dauphin Island, AL.