12/3/08 (Wednesday): We're just back from a Thanksgiving visit with Wiley's family in Winter Park. We enjoyed dinner (with no clean-up required!) at Holiday House. It's nice to be back fairly close to family. Today it was back to work. Wiley was putting pine straw down in some of the beds and I was typing a spreadsheet with some information the manager needs for a phone conference next week. It's quite cool here--high in the 60's today--and went down in the 20's last night!

I've promised several times to posts some pics from our kayaking trip on the Wakulla River.














There were very few flowers in bloom. This was a very strange looking moth or butterfly.














There were turtles everywhere!

















A lot of manatees had also come into the river (which is spring fed and relatively warm) from the Gulf of Mexico. Some of them were so close you could have touched them! They're REALLY big, and I was half afraid one was going to come up under the kayak and topple me!









We also enjoyed a drive up the coast a ways to Panacea. This was Sunset over the Gulf of Mexico from the restaurant where we had dinner.















I spent the last week before Thanksgiving decorating the Visitor Center and entrance gate station. I turned these unlikely looking dried seed pods



















into these ornaments for the tree with a little gold paint, red berries and ribbon. They look really nice on the Visitor Center tree!



















Then (along with my co-worker, Donna), we turned the entrance station into a gingerbread house. Some of the decorations were leftover from last year, some we made ourselves.



















I particularly enjoyed making the candy wreath. The candy canes are real, but I made the gum drops out of play doh and glitter glue! What fun!!




















I've got to go home and start some dinner. Catch you next time!