Afternoon in the Park

I'm lucky enough to have a County park and preserve right next to my apartment complex. It's also right on the edge of Tampa Bay so the park has lots of water access as well. This afternoon, I needed to get out and stretch my legs so we headed over and walked around a bit.

In what must be a fit of irony, they have wood snowmen figures at the entrance. It was 84F today.

Driving into the park. It's quite a long way back to where the water and trails are from the access road.

They have canoe rentals and a launch just down that ramp to the left.

You can see the mangrove trees with their roots peeking out of the water.
hey make little "islands" without actual land.

There's a whole boardwalk along the water.
We walked down it and stopped to take in the scenery. (Not bad for December, eh?)

A display of various shells, bones and other fossils from the area.

Playing with the "miniature" setting on my camera. Those are the same canoes from earlier!

They have an elevated viewing area you can go up to and get a sweeping, panoramic view of the area.

You can see the part of the boardwalk that runs along the waterfront.

There are trails through the scrub brush and woodlands. Lots of palms and Southern Oaks.

Not sure what the plant was but it was appropriately festive in color!

Some of the stately - and very tall! - Native pine trees.