Winter/Spring Activities in Florida

Just not sure how much traveling we will be doing anymore, we do have some trips in mind for further into the year.  So whether I will continue to write on this site remains a question.  Sometimes the idea of settling down here does not seem too bad-  given especially the news we have heard about the brutal weather up north in the past weeks.  However, we still have the hot summer and hurricane season facing us in the months ahead.  There is no heaven on earth, maybe just pieces of it!

In March our son Michael visited us and we visited the Museum of Fine Arts in St.Petersburg with him.  A most beautiful sight we encountered outside of the museum was a blooming kapok tree.  It was fully covered with bright red blossoms.  An Asian tree, the kapok is a gigantic tree of the tropical forest canopy.  Also known as the Java Cotton tree, it is known for its cotton-like fluff from its seed pods which are buoyant and used in the filling of life jackets.

We have learned to avoid crowds and festivals down here because of the large numbers of winter visitors who attend, and the distance required to get there.  A few weeks ago we decided to try again and visited a parade in the town of Oldsmar, a municipality near us.  Parking was no problem, and we had close seating to the parade, as you can see in the picture above of Clarissa watching the floats passing right in front of her.  Our grandchildren did not have to work hard either, to get the beads and candy thrown to them. 

We also visited the Lowry Zoo in Tampa.  Pictured above is a Marabou stork, sitting on her nest with her chicks.  Even though we are in Florida with its tropical-like weather, signs of spring can be seen without too much searching.  We are now seeing osprey high up on light poles building their nests, and the Tampa Bay Times posted a beautiful picture of two horned owl chicks cuddling in their nests on Honeymoon Island.  Also heard at night are the whip-or-will singing out to their mates.  I am certainly wishing for you people up north that the beauties of spring will be coming to you all soon!

Our Easter weekend was a bit cool with some rain coming down (at least we did not have snow).  The weather did not stop the many Easter egg hunts from happening!  In one of the eggs, which our grandson Nathan found, was a prize ticket.  He won an Easter basket which contained a water gun that he so badly wanted.  Strangely enough, playing with that gun in our park pool seems to improve his swimming skills!