Carrabelle Beach

Wow, I can't believe I last posted in November and now it is already Dec. 9. We are on what is called the Florida panhandle. It has been a little chilly the last couple of days, it even went below freezing last night. So, we are getting a little taste of winter.

We had a fun time in Tampa. We spent 3 days at Busch Gardens. This one has an Africa theme. It had 6 roller coasters! Boy, that was fun!! There were also animal exhibits and shows. We met up with Jim and Leslie and Yvonne again. We spent an afternoon with them at their campground and they spent an afternoon with us at ours. We also went to the beach and Busch gardens together.

From Tampa we headed up the western side of Florida to a park called Manatee Springs. It is one of many State Parks with beautiful natural springs bubbling up from underground. Richard and the girls went swimming and could feel the current from the spring pushing them. The water is crystal clear and a balmy 72F. Down from the spring, in the river we saw about 4 manatee feeding. The manatee come into the spring in the evening. We spent our evenings around the campfire singing Christmas Carols. It seems a little strange that Christmas is so close, we still feel like we are on summer holiday. Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of the springs. We had an accident with our camera in Tampa and we haven't found a camera store to see if we can fix it.

We are camped along a beautiful beach here in Carrabelle. We just haven't been able to use it because it is so cold. All the beaches along the Gulf of Mexico have sugar white sand beaches. It is just beautiful!! Wish you were here.