A trip to Florida's "Winter Wonderland"...???

We returned last weekend from spending most of the week in Florida on a business trip (we made it a family trip, too).  The kids had a couple days off of school, and we figured we'd take them out a couple of additional days--we did this with a clean conscience, as we always take the kids to educational stops, as well as fun places, on our trips.  Our first major stop, for example, was Horseshoe Bend National Military Park (http://www.nps.gov/hobe/index.htm) in Alabama (the visitor center is pictured above).  This was the site of a key battle in the War of 1812 between troops under the command of General Andrew Jackson and a number of Creek Warriors known as the "Red Sticks" who were attacking American (and allied Indian tribes) interests in the region.  Although in a well-fortified position, the Creeks were surrounded and the warriors were killed in large numbers--over 800 died in this battle for their lands (the largest number of Indians killed in a battle with the US government).  Later that day, we arrived at our destination--Florida's capitol city, Tallahassee.  Hope and the kids were amused to see that one of the universities in Tallahassee, Florida A&M, have a stadium with a familiar name:

Hope and the kids toured the area while I attended my meeting.  We did take the opportunity one evening to visit an Indian mound site in town.  The mound pictured below may be hard to see, as it is covered in vegetation (note the staircase on the left side of the mound):

You also may be interested to note one of the quintessential plants of the Deep South, Spanish moss, that drapes many of the trees in this area:

Spanish moss is what we call an "epiphyte" that grows on another plant...think of the mosses and lichens you've seen in the Northwoods.  Spanish moss is not a moss, nor is it a lichen, but rather it is a "bromeliad", which is a family of plants known for growing on the branches of trees.  You may have eaten one of the best known bromeliads recently, although it does not grow in trees--pineapples are in this plant family!  Below is a close-up picture of Spanish moss:

One day there were no talks for me to attend, so we took most of the day to do some sight-seeing of our own.  We had decided to go to a place called "Wakulla Springs State Park" (http://www.floridastateparks.org/wakullasprings/) which was close to Tallahassee and held the promise for another very unique Florida species--manatees!!:

Wakulla Springs is a very large spring that flows out of the "karst" topography of this part of Florida.  The waters are clear and cool, having percolated through the porous limestone bedrock for many, many miles.  The spring actually flows out of an underwater cave, and this flow (even during these dry years) supports a large amount of wildlife.  The manatees are wild, and have done well in this protected environment:

We took an hour long guided boat tour down this river, which is lined by old cypress draped in Spanish moss:

The blobs on top of the cypress trees in the pictures above are vultures sunning themselves in the cool morning--the picture below shows several with their wings spread to help them warm quicker:

One of the most common animals we saw were alligators, including the rather large individual with a flower near its head:

Hope really like the pretty bird below, with its bright reddish-orange beak and call that sounded like a monkey from the movies:

By no coincidence, this fascinating location has been the sight of several movies, including the "Creature From the Black Lagoon" and one of the Johnny Weismuller (spelling?) Tarzan movies.  The scene below was common--a wading ibis seemingly oblivious to the alligator (left side of picture) "lurking" in the vegetation:

In reality, this bird was pretty safe where it was--gators, as reptiles, are cold-blooded, and therefore pretty lethargic on cool mornings like this was...  After our boat ride, we walked through the park's lodge, with its intricately painted ceilings:

This lodge had been the retreat of a local wealthy individual until he donated to the state to make it a park.  We also hiked one of the park's nature trails, so the kids got to see some subtropical vegetation, such as this palm tree:

After a nice picnic lunch at another local park commemorating a small Civil War battle, we returned to Tallahassee with enough time to visit the Museum of Florida History in downtown:

Lots of neat things to see here, including the reconstructed skeleton of a mastodon found at Wakulla Springs, a lot of local Indian artifacts, and other parts of more recent cultures.  For instance, who says electric cars are a new thing--here's one from 1911!!:

And for Hope's bee-keeping family members, here is a hollow pine log beehive:

And for the quilters in the family, they had a large set of hand-made quilts:

I'll be honest--I prefer the old-style quilts with intricately patterned piecework (such as the one shown above) to those using commercial prints.  We left Tallahassee on a Saturday, intent to return to Arkansas via the Gulf Coast.  Below, we stopped to visit a state park on the coast with amazing white sands:

Years of exposure to steady strong winds twisted the pines growing on the dunes into many intricate forms:

Note the live needles of this pine are growing on the ground, with its "rainbow"-arched stem on the left side of this picture.  The beaches along this part of the Gulf are very white in color, and I can easily see how they feared the oil from that big spill of last year...fortunately, I don't think these beaches ended up getting any oil.  As you head further west towards Pensacola, Florida, the coast is more and more developed.  However, we did find another relatively pristine stretch of coast just outside of Pensacola--Gulf Islands National Seashore (http://www.nps.gov/guis/index.htm).  This area has been protected in part to preserve the human history of this area, which includes fortifications built as early as the 1830s to protect American naval interests in this area.  Below, Kenny examines a mortar at Fort Pickens:

Fort Pickens was initially built to protect from foreign invasion, but only saw combat during the US Civil War, which is when the cannon below dates from:

Interestingly enough, during this combat it was Confederate General Braxton Bragg that attacked the Union defenders of Fort Pickens.  Below, the brickwork of the original fort is still largely intact, although showing its age after 180 years:

Gulf Islands National Seashore also has a lot of fabulous white, sandy beaches and sand dunes.  In fact, the white dunes often reminded us of snow drifts--they really were that white!!  Below, the kids enjoyed dipping their toes in the surprisingly cool Gulf waters:

Both Stephen and Beth went for unexpected dips in the surf, but all had a blast collecting shells and running from the waves.  At this same beach, a different type of fortification was visible:

The large concrete bunker in the middle of this picture was built during World War II to act as part of the shore defenses for Pensacola (which is a major port and has a bunch of military facilities).  Don't the white dunes in the foreground make you think of a winter wonderland?

Time to sign off--our modern gun deer season opened this weekend, and I'm planning on getting out for a while this afternoon.