A Weekend Adventure

Sometimes, Frank and I like to get into our car and drive. We pick a direction and... sort of just go. The area of Florida we live in is slightly ocean-locked, so there really are only 3 directions we can head in, but we try to find something interesting to do on a tank of gas. Last Saturday, we had plans to go to Ocala State Forest but after deciding not to lose 5 hours just driving there, we ended up staying local most of the day.

Frank had just worked a 4am-9:30am shift and I didn't want to subject him to long car rides when I knew he'd want to get to bed early.

So instead of heading to Ocala, we ran a few errands and found our way to a local exotic pet store, where we oogled at all of the fun and mysterious animals. Of course, I took the chance to take a few snapshots of the adorable residents of the store.

After that, we went to pick up a few more things for our garden and then got on the road. I had an itch to make it to some park before the day was up, but being in a new city was making it hard to know where we had to go. I had a feeling we were getting close - we were in one of those nicer commercial areas saturated equally with both trees and concrete.

Finally, I spotted a hand-painted sign for a pit stop called Lake Park, so 1/8 of a mile later, we turned in. Being total dorks, we had forgotten cash for entry fees, but were surprised when the girl manning the gate let us in on the stipulation we'd get it "next time".

Happy about our fortune and with no idea where we were going, we wound our way back into the park before finding a nature trail nestled back next to a playground, dotted with unnaturally bright plastic dinosaur swings and a tiny blue whale. Though we weren't really dressed for rigorous activity, we made our way in and ended up walking the length around the lake, which I guesstimate to be around 3.5 miles.

It was lovely and warm, with a delicious breeze and no souls to be seen. We spotted a turtle, a few pileated woodpeckers and plenty of bugs. We ended up walking far enough that we knew we'd have to finish the circle to get back to the car. It was an easygoing walk, though I could tell Frank was getting tired near the end of his very long day.

Though it wasn't terribly enthralling, I was happy to get out and use my camera, and of course, spend time with my lovely.

We celebrated Sunday with some errands in the morning and a lovely, delicious Easter dinner with my family. It was a fun, productive weekend - a prelude to what is turning out to be a very, very stressful week.