This morning, Kaity and I took Will to school and were coming into Gainesville a different way - across Payne's Prairie on 441. We live on the prairie, just a different side of it, so it looks pretty similar to my normal drive to work. Lots and lots of fog. Since I wasn't in any hurry to get to work and Kaity doesn't get to do many special things by herself, we stopped at the boardwalk overlook for a few minutes.
Here's what it looked like as we started walking down the boardwalk. You can barely see the end of it.
The fog was masking the sun rise.
A different direction. The prairie is so interesting to me. There's trees all around and the all of a sudden this open space.
We've had a lot of crows at our house lately. I think there were 50 or 60 in our tree last night. I'm guessing that the prairie has just as many (or maybe it's the same flock.) Kaity was hoping to see a gator, but this was all the wildlife we saw.
Kaity really enjoyed the quick 5-minute stop. It was quite the treat and out of the ordinary for a school day.
She also requested a take a picture of the dead "pine" tree, so here it is. We're going to start working on tree id soon.
6 comments:
Payne's Prairies is a special place. And it has a fascinating hydrologic story: everyone seems to have a slightly different spin on it. I was at a conference earlier this year in Gainesville and had the good fortune of hiking down that trail. I wanted to see the sink, but ran out of time. Here's some photos I took and posted to my blog http://sfwj.blogspot.com/2008/03/paynes-prairie.html. Great post!
Ha! I used to say froggy when I was little, and for some reason it drove my Dad just nuts. ("Honestly honey, do you see Kermit anywhere? No. It's FOGGY!") I need to go to Paines Prairie. I've driven by at 75 miles an hour, but I've never stopped. Props to you for being such an organized mom that you have time for such a stop. I'm usually gunning it just to get to school on time - I'm in trouble if I have to stop for gas!
Robert - great pictures. And, I love that rest stop. We actually do have quite a few water moccasins because of the proximity to the prairie. Last summer, we came across 30 or so on the farm. They like to cross from the prairie to Levy Lake.
Wicked Gardener - It's funny the sayings that stick around. You should definitely stop sometime at the prairie. It has great walking trails and the kids always see some type of wildlife. Occasionally, you can see the buffalo herd or the cracker ponies grazing on the prairie.
Buffalo? No way!!
Maybe I'm biased, because I have a Katie (20 now), but your Katie is just too cute!
I'm going to call mine up right now and tell her I miss her.
And we always said froggy too.
wicked gardener - yes, there are buffalo, but in my 10 years of living here, I've only seen them once. I think they stay pretty far back in the prairie. If you hike way out (which I've never done), you'd probably see them more often.
FC - thanks! I think she's cute too. But 3 is a very cute age, no matter who it is.
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