Orlando Again!

After leaving the Keys on Saturday, we headed back to Orlando!

We stopped in Koreshan State Park in Ft. Myers for the night.  Very interesting park, that was originally a Koreshanity Community, started by Cyrus Teed to build the New Jerusalem.  The Koreshan believed that the universe existed inside a giant hollow sphere.  The final four remaining members deeded the property to the state in 1961.  Most of the original buildings they used are still standing, Trey and I toured the compound after they were closed for the night.  Gave us a very weird feeling walking among them reading all the beliefs of this very strange community.  The park and the compound are on the Estero River, which we of course took advantage of in our Kayak

 Kayaking on the Estero River.

 This little guy was just sitting on someone's dock, the first time we went by he went into the water, the second he stayed to have his picture taken.

 This was the bridge over to the Koreshan Compound.  We don't have any pictures of the buildings because unfortunately is was getting to dark.

 This very unusual tree is called a Monkey Puzzle Tree, it looks similar to a pine, but the leaves are very sharp even when they are green.  It didn't have any cones on this tree, but there was a picture of one that a lady was holding that showed that it was somewhere around 3' tall.

This beautiful hawk decided to visit us as we were walking through the compound.

We made it to Orlando on Sunday:

This was unfortunately just a quick stop to see a few people we didn't get to see before we left the first time, most importantly my brother Shaun.  Our first stop was at Gators in Clermont to see our dear friends Bubba & Christy (of course I forgot to take pics again), had a wonderful time as always.  Next stop was at our private campsite Camp Pine Timber (Trey's Dad), took him to his favorite place for dinner, Carraba's.  Thanks Lou for allowing us to keep our trailer in your back yard and most importantly for all the wonderful places you recommended for us to see on our travels.

Monday brought a day of errands to work out a few kinks we were having with the trailer brakes.  Nothing interesting there for sure.  Met Christina, Cara, Nate & Shaun for dinner at the Mellow Mushrooom.  Seems to be one of our favorite places to meet up.  Trey, Nate, & Shaun enjoyed several pitchers of beer while the girls & I caught up on what is going on in there lives.

 Christina, Me, & Cara

 Nate, Christina, Me, Cara, Trey & Shaun

Cara, Shaun & Christina