We left Zepherhills and our friend Bernadette and looked forward to an anticipated visit with Ed and Linda Henderson in Lakeland. Ed was our first Pastor who married us 37 years ago. They are long time friends, who mentored us early on in our Christian walk and our married lives. To say they are a special couple would be an understatement. We enjoyed 4 days chatting, visiting, sightseeing and playing games (Ed is champion Yahtzee player). Definitely a highlight of our travels. While there, Doug and I visited Circle B Bar Reserve – a 1300 acre cattle ranch turned nature reserve area, located on Lake Hancock in Lakeland. It was a hot humid day as we walked through the beauty of towering Live Oak trees dripping with Spanish Moss. We were on the hunt for alligators. Lake Hancock was loaded with them – but we only saw them from a distance (which is a good thing). FYI for every inch from the tip of their nose to their eye ridge equals 1 foot of body length. As we walked through the trail we saw every kind of bird imaginable – storks, egrets, cranes, pelicans, song birds, various kinds of ducks (the reserve boasts upwards to 200 varieties of birds). In the slimy green swamp we saw turtles resting on logs, and some more alligators. We aren’t able to share many photos from the day – but more on that later.
Our next stop was Long Point Beach Park near Melbourne. It is a county owned campground close to Sebastian Inlet ecosystems and the Atlantic Ocean. The beach is located about a mile down the road and we biked to it. The surf was terrific and the beach is on a deep slope. Fishermen with numerous poles line the shoreline. I always ask what they are fishing for, and the answer is always the same – “Whatever will bite”. They mostly catch Whites, but hope for Snapper and Pompano. As always we hunt for shells and as Doug sat to watch the surf, I went for a walk. I hadn’t gone too far when I saw this thing that looked like an oblong plastic bubble with a little blue fluid inside. When I touched it with one one my handheld shells, it responded. So I had to get a picture with our phone before I helped it back into the water. After the photo shoot I scooped it up into my shell and put it in the surf, which promptly sent it back towards me. I wasn’t sure if it was friend or foe and tripped as I fought to avoid it. So both me and our phone/camera went for a swim. Goodbye to our pictures, hello to new phone number (which every telemarketer seems to know). And it was a jelly fish. Back at the campground we saw a flock of wood storks and a bunch of pelicans. Speaking of pelicans…
Plenty of pelicans at Port Canaveral’s Jetty Park campground. We love to watch them fly – so smooth and majestic. Our campsite was beside the canal leading into the port which is also home to navy submarines. We weren’t fortunate enough to see any of those, but we did see a sea turtle and some dolphins! Port Canaveral boasts to be on of the world’s most popular cruise ports. Magnificent cruise ships are a common sight. Actually it is a busy boating/fishing port as well. Local deep sea fishing fleets will prepare customers’ catches to suit. The fish cleaning stations at the dock are flooded with pelicans looking for scraps. We caught a picture of one guy that got more than his beak could hold, but he wasn’t giving any of it up. They don’t have teeth and just gulp their food down. I think it took him all afternoon for that one gulp!
The beach at Jetty Park is beautiful – white sand, lovely surf. Fishermen can be found along the long pier looking for Whites and Pompano. Another great feature of Jetty Park is that the Kennedy Space Centre is just across the water and a space launch is scheduled for early Saturday morning. Stay tuned because we just can’t miss that! The whole month of February was wonderful here in Florida – record heat and sun most every day with plenty of humidity. Two summers for us in 2019 – can’t beat that!
Let's Do The 180! 
Love reading your blog…we are just on our way home from a cruise..that big cruise ship you saw might have been us! Lol
Glad you are enjoying your trip
God Bless!
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