Manatees and More!

Hi All -

So January is turning into a crazy busy month, as we hope to close on the house in Pittsburgh this week, Glenn heads to Atlanta, and we start cleaning out our rental to prepare for our closing on the new house at the end of the month.

In the meantime, cousin Amanda (you may remember her as the flower girl in our wedding) finally had her baby, a little girl named Norah Jane, on Jan. 3. (I stole these pics from her Facebook page...)

She's a cutie!

So welcome to the family, cuz!

About 10 years ago, Chad and Lisha took us to the Manatee Viewing Center in Apollo Beach to see the manatees. The manatees hang out at the base of the TECO Electrical Plant there because they have a warm water discharge. Unfortunately, when Chad and Lisha took us there, it was too warm outside and there was not a manatee to be seen.

So Glenn and I went again on Saturday. This time, there were hundreds of manatees there. Sadly, manatees don't photograph very well --they tend to look like a bunch of rocks. But anyway, here are a few exciting shots.

 

You can see what a scenic location this is. I just read a blog where the writer referred to Apollo Beach as the "canker sore of Hillsborough County."

Mmmm....toxins!

But anyway, I was happy to finally see my peaceful sea cow friends. And Glenn and I did manage to find some fun photo opps.

And for those of you who've always dreamed of putting Glenn in a hurricane simulator...

The mangroves were kinda cool.

Yesterday, Glenn and I took the dogs to a nearby park we had never been to before. It was also in a rather sketchy area, but the birds and dogs liked it anyway.

Anyway, that's all the news for now. Hope all of you up North are surviving the Polar Vortex okay and stay safe and warm.

Mother Deuce says "Bundle Up!"

Later, gators!