Back from our vacation

 

We just got back from our vacation to Key West. We stopped at Cathryn and Bryan's farm for a couple days to see the sights around in the Florida panhandle. The first stop was the Naval Air Museum in Pensacola and the lighthouse across the road from it.

The view from the lighthouse was wonderful. The pamphlet said there was 177 steps to get to the top of the lighthouse and they were also numbered, so you knew how many you had left to go, and how far you had already come.

Pensacola beach was pretty. The water was cool, but not that bad. We both waded around.

The next stop was DeLand to see some friends. We were parked in Jay and Debbie's driveway. We took the kyacks to the St. John's river by Blue Springs and saw some manatees.

We also visited the Kennedy Space Center. It is a very interesting place.

Then we headed down to Collier-Seminole State Park near Naples and took an airboat and swamp buggy tour of the Everglades. There were alligators present, of course.

This guy was about 6ft long and not in any kind of a hurry. 

Lots of mangroves, too. These are red mangroves and will eventually cover the everglades according to the guide.

From there, we went on to Key West. It was a nice place to visit, but has gotten heavily commercialized. 

There are still a few banyan trees around. I've always thought they were cool looking trees.

We visited Marco Island while we were there, too. It was just a couple miles fron the campground, with a nice beach.

Our last stop on the way back home was in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Home of Jack Daniels' distillery. I have visited it a couple of times before now and it keeps getting bigger and better. We stayed in Tims Ford state campground just a few miles away for this part of the trip.