Christmas on the beach!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We decided to be a bit non-traditional this year and spent the day on the beach at Gasparilla Island State Park.  It was wonderful...and warm!  :-)

We've been relaxing, playing a little pickleball, and I'm reading lots of books.  It's nice to see some familiar faces here from 2 years ago as well as friends from out west. Thanks again for transporting our package, Ken and Faye!

Faye and Ken - great to see you again!

We are currently in Wauchula staying next to the Peace River so we took the opportunity to get our kayaks out, dust them off and take them out for a float down the river.  We put in at Paynes Creek Historic State Park and floated approximately 12 miles down to our campground - 4 hours.  It was a beautiful day to be on the river and we saw at least a hundred turtles, dozens of beautiful birds and FIVE alligators!!  They really are not a threat but they certainly get the heart racing a bit when they quietly slide from their resting points on shore and enter the depths of the water somewhere underneath us (note:  we have inflatable kayaks)!

Paynes Creek Historic State Park

This big girl lives at the park and has many young ones in the waters with her

Strawberry Picking!  We were excited to go back to a local farm to pick their sweet strawberries.  There is a new owner this year who planted a different variety.  While they are not as big as last time they are certainly sweet and yummy!  We picked 11lbs and ate them in 4-5 days.  We'll go pick another big batch tomorrow to take further south with as as we're moving to the Punta Gorda area for the next 5 weeks.

We enjoy seeing all the decorations in the campgrounds around the holidays.  I think this one takes the cake in the blow up category!

Til next time...Happy Trails and Happy New Year!  Blessings, Peace and Joy for 2014!