January Lake Weekend

 The weekend before last we headed over to the lake with our friends the McManus family to celebrate the long Martin Luther King three day weekend!  We had not been to the lake since either late October or Early November so it was more than over due!  We found things in good order, and enjoyed a nice but cooler lake weekend.  On this trip we visited the farm which we had not been to in a long time, and a distillery and brewery.  It was not great "lake" weather so instead we hung out at the house and spent some time also supporting the local businesses!  

We have also been quite busy this month getting back into the swing of things with school and work.  It is full season here and we are also in the 3rd quarter of school and it really feels like the full court press of life is on us these days!  School is busy, life and work are busy and we are hanging on!!

The kids are both growing quite a bit these days, Jackson is more mature and growing into quite the gentlemen and quite the tennis player!  He has been playing 3-4 time a week and he is also mastering his piano songs for the upcoming spring outdoor recital set for March 7th.  When he is not doing school work, tennis, or piano you can find him playing Fortnite with friends or his VR (virtual reality) computer games.

  Sarabeth is also growing and is thoroughly enjoying her big girl room with a desk and loft and her vanity  with makeup and scrunchies.  She is in the throws of learning hard long division and other harder 4th grade learning concepts and is still hanging in there with piano, also preparing for her recital in March.  She is excited about valentine's day upcoming and is really into clothes and make up these days as well as doing anything she can with her friends.  

Here are some pictures from our weekend at the lake and life these days around our house!!

Jon's birthday and trip to Crystal River to swim with the Manatee!

 I need to catch up a post from last weekend at the lake with our dear friends the McManus family so watch for that from MLK weekend but this weekend we did something we have wanted to do for the entire time we have lived in Florida....we swam with the manatee at Crystal River up in the springs region in northwest Florida.  Citrus County Florida is about an hour or so west of Orlando and an hour or so north of Tampa near the gulf but still in state a bit.  This is the only place in the entire world it is legal and permitted for people to swim with manatees, which are actually an endangered species!  This is a winter activity only Nov-March as the Manatees swim into the springs from the gulf in the winter months to seek that 72 degrees water as the springs are always warmer than the gulf in the winter months.  Manatees actually cannot live in water cooler than 65 degrees so come Florida winter they high tail it for the springs to hibernate away!  We learned so much about manatee I am full of facts these days.  I will say the kids were the perfect age for this activity and while we have been on tours literally all over the world and Caribbean, this was hands down one of the best family tours we have taken anywhere, right here in Florida !!

We booked this because its been on the list to do but also it happened that this is a winter month activity while the manatee are in the springs and Jon's birthday happened to fall on a Saturday this year so this weekend it was!  We took the RV and got a spot at Homosassa Springs RV resort about 15 minutes from Crystal River.  We had never been to this part of Florida and we were pleasantly surprised with how great it was!  Some areas felt like our lake house with just more going on.  There are so many RV resorts, camp areas and lake and river resorts all throughout this part of Florida and there were many many great restaurants (all local non chain) as well as so many spots with nightly great live music, an amazing find we found!  Its a great spot for seeing and swimming the springs, kayaking, hiking, biking, as well as manatee swimming and sighting and this is definitely a part of Florida we will return to again!  It was only about a 3.5 hour drive from Vero Beach, which I have decided is the PERFECT RV weekend driving distance so we will be back!  

We picked the kids up from school an hour early Friday in the RV (first time for everything, seriously we did pick them up in the RV, Jackson's friends were changing classes and hooting and hollering when they saw the RV) and off we went!  We got checked into our campground about 5:00 and parked and set up and then we headed off to a great river front spot called Crump's Landing with live music and good food, a good sunset view and lots to do for the kids.  Saturday we had a nice slow morning which we all needed, we woke up and wished Jon a happy birthday and opened his presents in the decorated coach, and then about 11:00 we left to go explore Crystal River and that whole area ahead of our EXPLORIDA private family manatee swim tour we had booked at 1:30.  We explored the area, saw the Three Sisters Springs area, as well as the Hunter's Run Spring and the King's Bay area and wandered upon an amazing lunch spot called the Crab Plant where we had blue crab chowder for lunch as well as fresh steamed clams and then it was time for our tour!

We got suited up in wet suits, met our guide Lindsay (SB and I shopped the awesome souvenirs before our tour and decided what we would get on our return trip) and it was time to hop into the van for the drive from the Explorida adventure center to the river and docks where we met our captain Tommy who along with Lindsay would be our guides for our 3 hour private family tour!!  WE HAD A BLAST!  They kept us away from the touristy stuff, and within 20 seconds of being in the water we had an entire family of manatee swim right under us!  Sarabeth was really anxious at first but Lindsay was WONDERFUL and took her with her one on one right into the water and before we knew it she relaxed and enjoyed the experience.  As it is winter in Florida we wore wet suits and even then it was a bit cool as we had a cloudy January day and they did not miss a beat, they had piping hot chocolate ready for us as we got out of the water back onto the boat!!  We got in and out at least 4 different places and saw manatee at all spots.  Our favorite spot was probably the last spot at a spring where the water was really warm and we saw a sleeping manatee!!  

Another surprise was that our guide Lindsay had a special under water camera and took pictures the entire time!  WE had no idea and we got the USB stick as part of our tour at the end...amazing!  These pictures speak for themselves...everyone should put swimming with the manatees in Citrus County Florida on their bucket list!  This is a day none of us will ever forget!!