Grayton Beach State Park - 2nd time around

So we’re back to Grayton Beach for a couple more weeks – can’t get enough of this area!  We were doing some Xmas shopping at Pier Park in Panama City Beach when a nasty storm rolled through:

Temp dropped a good 40 degrees after this storm came through.  Cooler weather seemed to be the theme of the next couple of weeks here.   40s & 50s (some 60s) - still beats 20s & 30s back home (:

We went to McTighs (our favorite local Irish sports pub) to watch the Pats blowout the Jets on Monday night!  Great place to catch a game, good food, drink and friendly owner & wait staff! 

This visit to Grayton we saw Eagles every other day.  I had my best view while working on the trailer roof as 1 flew over quite low - but without a camera.  Here’s one of a pair of Eagles we observed flying wing to wing for several mins while biking – tough to catch a good pic of them:

We've been on the lookout for bobcat as there are signs indicating they are in the area.  We've been checking out all different animal tracks and thought we were on to something with these:

but learned later that these are most likely canine as the bobcat walks with it's nails retracted.

We’ve been doing a lot of biking here again.  The trails are great for hybrid bikes (except for the spiny spurs that have caused 5 flat tires so far):

Every day we explore new trails through the town of Water Color.  Nice packed sand trails with these elaborate bridges in between:

Many of the trails have markers to point out (and educate) interesting nature facts (if you stop to read them) – Deer moss here looks like mold on the forest floor:

Not bad for over the shoulder picture taking . . .

Going to try uploading a couple videos of these wonderful trails weaving there way through the town of Water Color:

While staying here, we hit a couple of the local State Parks nearby.  Falling Waters SP boast sinkholes and the longest waterfall in FL.  The trails were mostly railed boardwalks (protecting us from falling in):

Here’s a shot of one of the many sink holes here:

And then there’s the longest waterfall in Fl . . . not much water and what makes it the longest waterfall is that it flows into a sinkhole:

OK, I can't figure out how to upload this picture without losing the rotation 90 degrees to the left (so turn your head to the right or your computer to the left)!

The other State Park we visited Rocky Bayou SP.   Nice park but nothing exciting to see so no pics.  Both parks look like nice places to camp but I wouldn’t go out of the way just to visit.

We did see what looked like an oil slick just off the shoreline but it turned out to be a massive school of tiny fish.  This picture shows the “least terns” (seagull like birds) diving for these fish.  The pelicans seemed to be waiting for the larger fish to show up:

I'll try another video here of these birds in action:

We also saw several rays cruising by close to shore (you have to look close and you'll see the dark spots - they'd travel in groups of 3-4):

This last week here was birthday week for me.  We went to Bass Pro Shops in Destin where Suze & the Taylors (thanks for the gift cert!) bought me all the fishing gear I need to look like I know what I’m doing.  After several no nibble outings, I decided to go fishing at high tide for a change (which happened to be at 10pm) where I caught my 1^st, 2^nd & 3^rd fish.  I believe they are all catfish (nasty finned fish):

Although they may have been keepers, I threw them all back in looking for bigger.  Next time!

The Pats delivered a wonderful birthday present with a blowout of the Bears this week . . .  and for a bonus, the Jets lose ugly to Miami!

We’re now at Salt Springs in Ocala National Forest.  No cell or internet here (but the local library has free wifi and comfy seats) - the park looks nice so far.  We're only here a few days before heading over toward Melbourne . . . more to come!