Keys to Silver Springs

After leaving Port of the Islands we headed to a great county-run park and campground in South Miami - Larry and Penny Thompson Park.
We wanted a place to just spend a few days with the cats. We had been leaving them alone a lot and thought some quiet time with them would be good - and it was.

This park, though fairly large was quiet and friendly with plenty of space between campsites. There are also great walking trails through old mango groves and around a nice lake. See pictures here.

We then headed into the Keys to visit with Dave and Marilyn Ayala, boating buddies and great friends. Ann and I also used to work with Dave back in the '90s. The RV park was on Fiesta Key and had almost nothing to recommend it but it did allow us to spend time with Dave and Marilyn. We did have a nice sunset and then turned around and saw the moonrise. Pictures here.

After saying goodbye to Dave and Marilyn we headed north to meet up with my sister Linda and her husband Al. It was a long way from the Keys to Silver Springs (over 7 hours) and to give us and the cats a break, we broke it into 2 days. We went a little out of our way but found a gem of (another) Florida Sate Park south of Orlando. We spent one night in Lake Kissimmee State Park and loved it. The campsites were so private with beautiful native
vegetation in between each site. We would have loved to stay longer but had to move on. Pictures here.

We met Linda and Al at a private campground near Silver Springs State Park. The day after we arrived we did the whole tourist bit, taking the glass bottom boat tour of all the springs. We also did some walking around the beautiful boardwalks they have built through the cypress forest.

On the boardwalk there is a bridge that goes over a part of the Silver River and we stopped there to
take some pictures. A family was in a kayak below us and we heard them talking about an alligator. Sure enough, right in front of them was a 5ft gator swimming ahead of them. I didn't get a shot of the gator because he was moving away too quickly. Later, when looking at the shots I took before the kayak went below us, I realized I HAD gotten the gator in the shot! See all our pics here.

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