March 9, 2019
It was a beautiful day today. We met Donald’s nephew Daniel and his wife Ashley and their three kiddos at Blue Spring State Park. We spent several hours walking the boardwalk, looking at the manatees and paddling in canoes on the St. John’s River. It is a beautiful spring. It was closed off to swimming because the manatees are wintering up in the run. This spring is 72* year-round. Read here about the manatees in the spring each winter.
We walked along the boardwalk up to the spring head.
Found a tree with a poison ivy vine growing on it.
You can see the little flower buds in this photo.
We saw manatees in the river. About 12-14 of them.
Later in the early afternoon, Suzie’s sister Sandy, her husband Joel and cousins Warren and Dylan came up from Lakeland and hung out with us for a couple of hours.
Thought this dual tree was pretty neat.
This house is on the property.
Then around 5pm Donald’s father’s second cousin Dan and his wife Pat and their great-grandson, Tucker, met us at the park. We visited for a couple hours and then went out for supper together. Their son is a law enforcement K-9 officer. He was just getting off duty and stopped by the restaurant for a few minutes to visit and show us his dog.
Fun fact that Donald never knew about his grandfather….
Donald’s granddad was a barber in Bunnell, a small town in northern Florida. Before Elvis was a famous actor/singer he was a truck driver. His truck route went right through Bunnell and Dan told us that Elvis regularly stopped at Donald’s grandfather’s barber shop for a haircut. If only his grandfather could’ve seen the future…and saved the hair that fell on the floor of his barber shop!