The week of March 4th, I had the privilege of flying home to spend time with my wonderful grandson Evan (19 mo) and new grandson Cooper (1 week). Of course getting time with Emily and Brett was super too. ;-) My time was filled with talking and playing with Evan; along with cuddling with Cooper. More pics of the boys are on the side. Evan surprised me with the leaps in his verbalization since we left for our trip. He is jabbering away now. It was so good to get Cooper home so he could get into a settled loving environment. Emily and Brett are so blessed with these two precious boys. I'm glad it won't be long until we will be back in PA and can spend more time with them. 
We moved to Rainbow Springs March 11th. These springs in FL are amazing. This spring puts out 400 million gallons of water per day! The river running from it is crystal clear as evidence by the picture above of the fish around our boats. While paddling we saw many other canoe/kayakers, tour boats of scuba divers for the deep holes of the river, people tubing and swimmers in the headwaters. This water is a constant 72o making for great swimming in any weather. 
More and more spring time on our trip. This park was once a private attraction and has a large garden area with 50,000 azaleas, waterfalls, and more. The waterfalls are constructed, not natural, but still very pretty. The blossoms attract many butterflies, some in the slideshow to the side. As you can see by my clothes, the weather is extremely warm here. As most of the country is experiencing a mild winter, so is FL. Temps have been consistently in the 80's. Since moving north to this park though, the evenings are a bit cooler, 58o to 60o in the mornings. 
Another treat on our paddling was seeing a number of birds. Here is a picture of a pair of wood ducks. We get these ducks at the cabin for nesting but I can never get this close! This one will go in my bird album. 
One day we drove to the area of Crystal River and Crystal Springs. We visited the Nat'l Wildlife Preserve and found they really did not offer much for us there. Next we stopped and walked the grounds of the CR Archeological Site, a site with Indian burial and temple mounds. Can you see the face on this rock? A long pony tail to the left with two eyes and a open mouth. We learn so much on our travels. As they say, you are never too old to learn! Last we stopped at the CR State Park and rode our bikes on a nice 7 miles trail in the hammock. Luckily, not too much loose sand.We will leave here Monday, 18th, to head to the north east coast and St Augustine for our last week in FL.
