Alligators and Manatees

A few weeks ago our friends Jesse and Carie told us of a cool state park nearby called Blue Springs state park. We decided to go a couple of days ago and check it out...but what we didn't know was how much trouble we were getting ourselves into!

After seeing some really cute Manatees in a natural spring we took a short hike to enjoy the incredible beauty there was.

While strolling around we saw a sign saying "Canoe Rental". Me, receiving my Canoeing merit badge as a Boy Scout, I knew I was qualified to take my wife on an excursion down the St. Johns river. The park guys said we might see some Alligators but we didn't actually believe him. Just a few minutes into our journey we saw some beeting little eyes of a huge alligator just off the bank of the river! We got scared and started paddling down the river to get away from him, even though he didn't move or really care that we were there. Then we saw another one on the other side! They were everywhere!

This fella was really interesting because once he swam to one side of the river, he just turned around and swam to the other side. Luckily we paddled by quickly while he was going the other way!



All in all, we saw 6 or 7 alligators. The picture of the one on the shore was only 20 feet away from us! It was a little scary because any of them at any time could have easily just swam over, knocked us out of our very unstable canoe and made us their lunch. But fortunately for us, they didn't and the whole adventure turned out to be a really cool experience that we will forever remember....and never do again!