We decided to spend a little time exploring the western side of Florida before we began making our way north, so we spent a few nights at Medard Park in Plant City, Florida.  It was about 45 minutes into Tampa, so we only ended up going in one day to check it out.  The park we stayed at was really nice though, with a really cool natural jungle gym forest that the kids loved and played in a lot.

         

The kids and I drove into Apollo Beach, Florida one day during the week while Eric was busy working.  They had a visitor centre and a manatee viewing spot near a power plant in the city.  Apparently, in the winter months, when the ocean gets below 68 degrees, the manatees like to come and swim in the warm water that is dumped into the bay near the power plant.  We didn’t really see too much as far as manatees go.  We saw a few noses poking out, and big shapes swimming that might have been manatees, but the coolest thing we got to do while we were there was pet some sting rays.  They had a sting ray tank where you were allowed to gently reach in a touch the wings of the rays as they were swimming by.  That was definitely the highlight of the day for all of us.

                    

                          

 

On Saturday, Eric was free to come exploring with us, so we drove into St. Petersburg and went to Fort de Soto Park.  This was a former military fort, and we got to look around the remaining buildings.  We also spent part of our day enjoying the lovely beach, and soaking up some sunshine.