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Published: February 18th 2013
Where do you go when the weather gets nippy in Florida? The manatees head to the warm waters around Apollo Beach so we followed suit. The Big Bend Power Plant is located there. It provides a warm water discharge which is a necessary environment for these big animals. They don't thrive in cold water. There is a wonderful viewing center where you can learn and see these creatures arriving and resting in their comfortable surroundings. They will leave when the temperature goes up but until then, they remain clustered in pods for all the visitors to see. Today the water temperature in this area was 75 degrees.....outside air temp. was 46 degrees. Brrrrr.... unless you are from Wellsville, N.Y. and then it is classified as a nice day. We have been to this center before but at that visit, we saw only a couple manatees. Today was like a Thanksgiving banquet....hundreds were gathered. We continued in a southerly direction. We ended up in Sarasota. A couple years ago we stayed awhile at a huge RV park here: Sun n' Fun. It is a 1700 site "community".....completely all contained with everything you could wish for. Actually, Tropical Palms (our current park) is owned by the same company that owns this one. We didn't care for this park...much too big and busy. It offers 178 things to do....the decision making becomes much too overwhelming. The traffic is like a metropolis with the myriad of cars, bikes, golf carts, scooters, people, etc. Your life was always on the line. We had hoped to look up friends we made when we were there. You would have thought we were trying to get into Fort Knox. Talk about good security...they have it! We had to explain our purpose so many times, we became hoarse. We finally gave the right password and got in. Our friends are no longer there but all the cars, bikes, scooters, golf carts and people are....it hasn't changed a bit! We remembered why we didn't like it. Moving on, we ended up in Siesta Key. Rochester friends live there so we gave them a call. Arriving unannounced doesn't allow for success. They had a better date....going to see The Beach Boys. Luckeeee. Our only meal of the day came from the Anna Maria Oyster Bar....all the fish & chips you could eat as the early bird special. It was very good
but the single serving was sufficient so we didn't do the special justice. Looking at us, you would probably think we ate all the fish they offered. Someday, and soon, I have to get back on my diet: starvation! Our final destination of the day ended up at a Flea & Collectble Show we stumbled across on the way home. A perfect way to end the day.
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Manatee Viewing Center
