January 1, 2017 - Lake Placid & Sebring, FL

Happy New Year 2017

Foggy morning

After breakfast we went over to say goodbye to Edna and Jack with their two daughters.  Jack said he did not want to take firewood home, wanted to leave them for us. How kind of him.  

After Edna and Jack left we hung around with other friends for a while. Some of them wanted to see our Lil’ Home and we gladly gave them a tour.  

Osprey

Gopher Tortoise

After all friends had left Bon, Marilyn and their grandsons took us to Lake June-in-Winter Scrub State Park near Lake Placid.  It is a 30 minute drive from Highlands Hammock State Park.  

You take County Road 621 West from Route 27 if driving toward Lake Placid from Sebring.  Along the county road there are a couple boat ramps and fishing piers. 

Lake June-in-Winter Scrub State Park is a 845 acre preserve.  It was said that it was once an island in ancient times.  There are prickly pear cactus here.  It is the scrub vegetation that Scrub Jay birds make their homes here.  The park is open from 8 a.m. until sunset, 365 days a year.  The entrance fee is $2 per vehicle.  

Marilyn and her grandsons, Mason and Chase, went to the shoreline for fishing, while Erwin stayed in the pavilion to avoid the sun.  Bon and I chose to hike on Tomoka Trail, a short, but challenging 1/4 mile trail. We were hoping to see Scrub Jays, but none showed up. I spotted two dragonflies and took pictures, but they were so far away. That was it.  Some areas along the trail were very muddy and there are boards over them.  

Dragonfly

Mason and Chase did not have any luck in catching fish, so Bon suggested we go to another fishing spot, few miles from the park.  

Banyan Tree

Chase caught a small largemouth bass and he was thrilled because his brother, Mason, had been catching  few few days ago.  We relaxed at the picnic table under the banyan tree while the boys continued to fish.

Bon mentioned that she and the family plan to go out for pizza somewhere.  We told her we will gladly join in with her and the family.  There was one pizza joint in Sebring, but it was closed on New Year’s Day, so we found one that was open.  We liked to go to dining establishments that received high rankings/good reviews, but, like we mentioned it is New Year’s Day many restaurants were closed.  Pizzanos was ranked #69 out of 89.  We had one large Deluxe pizza and it was surprisingly good.  

After we got back to the campground Bon wanted all of us to play Chicken Feet domino game.  We had never heard about it and were willing to learn how to play.  We did not keep the score of who was the winner, but it was a fun game for us.  

Having fun playing the game

We sat around the campfire for a while. The night was very pleasant. No jackets or sweatshirts were needed.

Bon was walking toward the bathhouse when she spotted a white-tailed buck standing in the back of the building.  She was excited about it, wanted to alert us, but it vanished as soon as she pointed to where it was.

We had a good day with hiking, fishing, relaxing, dining out, playing games and chatting.  

Bon, Marilyn and the boys will be checking out tomorrow morning.  So, it will be just two of us for the next few days.

~Edith