Memorial Day 2008

All give some; but some give all!!

Jim and I attended the Memorial Day celebration in Ocala, Florida. It was held in the Vetrans Park, which is just across the street from the Condo. I was very impressed. The people of Ocala are very patriotic. They held a band concert, then laid a wreath to honor all fallen Soldiers and even had a flyover of old World War II planes. It was very nice and I was glad we stopped when we saw all the flags. I have added some other pictures below.

After that moving ceremony, we just turned the car West and programed "State Parks" into the Garmin. We made it to two state parks, Ranbow Springs State Park and Crystal River State Archaeological Site, as well as three antique shops. Let me tell you a little about each park because they were so different.

Rainbow Springs State Park

Rainbow Springs really surprized us in the number of people that were using the park. There were hundreds of people!! The swimming area is a springs, which means that the water is at 72 degrees all year around. That makes the water very cold, even in the summer. All the same....a lot of people were swimming. They also rent canoes to take down the Rainbow River. We are going to do that some time this summer (maybe). The pictures are beautiful but I did see many people who reinforced why I should not wear a bathing suit.

Crystal River State Archaeological Site

Cyrstal River is also a beautiful river but the park is really an archaeological site. We saw pre-Columbian ceremonial sites. It was very interesting and we got to talk to a couple guys fishing. Both had caught fish. The pictures show a boat in the river but shortly after that picture the river "traffic" really picked up and there were at least 12 boats and 10 jet skis on the river at the same time.