We joined up with Gary and Erin to visit the Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park today. It's a bit of a drive over to the west coast but it's always interesting. 

Today in the reptile house a man was showing off one of their smaller snakes. I love snakes as long as I know they aren't poisonous, so I queued up to pet this little guy.

There were several Roseate Spoonbills standing in the trees today. Wow, these are beautiful.  Well, at least their feathers are. Their heads are not as pretty, at least not to my non-bird eyes, but they probably feel differently.

I thought this big black bird was either an Anhinga or a Cormorant but those don't have that kind of head. It's an American black vulture. 

 A lot of American black vultures, in fact.

I love the Fishbow viewing area because it extends below the water to give a view of the animals as they swim by. Some of the windows are almost opaque from age and scratches - they are going to have to fix that someday. But a few of the windows still show a worthwhile view. I knew there were lots of fish here, but today we saw a couple of the local manatees swim by. These guys are free to come and go, but have decided to live here year round. 

Lu, the oldest hippo in captivity and an honorary citizen of Florida, lives in a separate facility nearby.  He's 58 years old now and still holding court in his huge pond. Lu doesn't seem to let too much bother him. 

They have a few endangered Florida Key deer here, which are a smaller subspecies of white-tail deer, mixed in with some regular white-tail deer.  Pretty little things. 

We had 4pm reservations at Peck's Old Port Cove Seafood Restaurant (that long name is why we just call it "Pecks"). This is where they serve our favorite seafood dish, the stuffed catch-of-the-day. I don't know why they call it that, it's always the same fish, which is good because it's always wonderful. After we place our order, the waitress usually brings out a basket of onion straws. These are excellent - thinly cut, lightly breaded and perfectly seasoned. I don't like onions but I simply can't stop eating these! This time they brought us two baskets - we must have looked hungry.

Unfortunately they were so good that we ate them all. Then, when they brought our meal, it was difficult to finish the fish. But it was so good that we had to. Then, to celebrate Erin's recent birthday, the waitress brought her a free slice of key lime pie. That, too, was excellent but it was really too much!