Look what I found!

I’ve seen signs in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, but no gators. That is, until I visited New Smyrna and my friends took me to Merritt Island Wild Life Refuge. It took a while, but we saw Papa Gator above, aaaannnnnd…….

Mama and Baby Gator!!!!! We also saw 11 more relatives spread throughout. These gators are ‘in the wild’ and have the freedom to travel the Intercoastal Waterway and go wherever, but it was so cool to see them all here. They are amazing – they look like dead dinosaurs because you can’t even tell they are breathing. Only one was swimming, so I didn’t get too close.

We also saw some beautiful birds, turtles and an armadillo

Did you know you could go to the beach right next to Cape Canaveral?

It would have been neat if a rocket was launching, but not today. SpaceX is nearby too. These are my friends Cheryl and Tom. They also took me to a restaurant in New Smyrna (the initials are BO, but I can’t remember the name). I mention this because this restaurant has rocking chair tables! I’m not sure where that concept came from (or how to take a picture to show you), but it certainly was unique.

Interesting note: up and down the east coast of Florida, high schoolers are ALL on Spring Break at the same time! You can see two police cars in the parking lot picture. If I had taken a picture to the right you would have seen at least 10 more. Cops and kids everywhere!

After a brief stop at Canal Street Nights, for rectangular pizza and live music,

I’m on my way back to Clearwater. I’ll keep this one short and chat with you later!

Tip of the Day: Do NOT attempt to drive through Tampa during Spring Break!! It added at least an hour to my drive!