Friday January 20th 2017

The humidity was up today, but otherwise was more of the same. The temperature peaked in the high 70s, but felt a few degrees warmer.

I got caught up in the drama and pageantry of the inauguration coverage. For a day that was primarily pageantry, the media managed to find all kinds of drama. I don’t want this blog to become political, so I’m stopping there. I watched until the new president was sworn in then got on with my day.

Grocery shopping was my primary focus, but I also stopped at the Manatee Viewing center. I went to the Super Walmart in Sun City Center for the groceries. It’s challenging passing through the housing developments in Sun City Center. Golf carts are used by the residents to get around. They are mixed in with full size traffic and are supposed to follow the traffic laws. I think a few of the Golf cart drivers didn’t get that message. Three lanes of stop and go traffic in each direction with an impatient Golf Cart driver weaving around the full size cars is just not safe.

When I stopped at the Manatee Viewing Center on my return trip to the campground, the manatee viewing was a little better than my previous visits. The manatees were much closer to the viewing decks. Unfortunately, they were still too far away to get a closeup view. They were seventy five to a hundred feet away. Their noses, backs and flippers were visible as they came to the surface for air.

Manatee sticking nose out of water for air.

I didn’t get any clear pictures. My point and shoot camera doesn’t have filters to compensate for the glare of the sun on the water. That fact when combined with the glare on the cameras view screen made it a guess on the point, shoot and pray camera.

School of Tarpon

Tarpon breaking the surface

The manatee may have been shy, but the tarpon weren’t. The big fish were entertaining the visitors right beside the viewing deck. As they swam back and forth occasionally breaking the surface when turning the spectators were delighted. A couple of people even thought they were the manatees. Some of the tarpon were over three feet long but certainly weren’t the sea cows the viewing center is named after.