Visiting Pelican Place and Cedar Key

Wednesday March 18, 2014
Manatee Springs State Park
Chiefland, Florida

 

 

 

PELICAN PLACE

 

Yesterday we got an invite from our friend Syl to visit Pelican place today and go for a bike ride in their new home town of Cedar Key.   You bet!  Pelican Place is only about 30 minutes from us here in Manatee Springs State Park so we arrived just after 11:00 to find Syl there to direct us into a parking place and Gin arrived shortly to welcome us to their new winter home in the Cedar Key RV Park.   They recently bought the spot right next to Dan and Tricia and thus have created the gathering area known as Pelican Place.

 

 

I neglected to get a picture of the very nice sign saying Pelican Place that Tricia made which is just behind where David is sitting.  But I did get this picture of everyone gathered round on the patio there between the two lots.  They have done a bang up job of landscaping both their lots and the grounds around and behind them.  They have a fire pit, plenty of covered wood, a bbq area.  Just everything you could think of for outdoor Florida living. 

 

 

Tricia says Dan gets all the credit for seeing the potential here.  They’ve done a fantastic job making this their beautiful winter home.

 

 

 

Syl tells David about all the hard work they have done making this lot into just what they wanted.

 

 

 

CEDAR KEY

After eating our lunches while chatting round the circle, we take the bikes to Cedar Key to see about the owls and eagles they have all been keeping an eye on.  The owls picked a nice tall pine overlooking the water on the edge of a quiet graveyard.  Nice spot.  Though the group saw the owlets as recently as 2 or 3 weeks ago, we are too late for the owls.  Not a sign of them other than the nest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That nest has a fine view that’s for sure.  Hope they’ll return another year.  It must have been a lot of fun to bike over often and watch the progress.

 

 

 

Ok so off we go over to the Eagle tree.  This one is a pine too and located in a lucky someone’s back yard.  Tricia says there were two baby eagles but they sure aren’t babies any more.  We only see one juvenile hanging around.  No sign of the sibling or the parents.  Probably off fishing or perhaps giving fishing lessons.  Who knows?

 

 

 

 

 

Cedar Key is such a great place, you can stand around in the middle of the road looking at an eagle nest and no one even drives by.

 

 

 

While we were standing in the cemetery looking for the owls, another bird watcher drove up in a car to see if we had seen them.  She tells us there are two osprey nests near the museum.   Those are 3rd on our bird watching bike ride.

Here we have the best luck.  An adult is standing near the nest also in pine tree and a little osprey is peeking out.  It’s a long way away so my picture is a bit sketchy but my binoculars at least show me where to point the camera.  In the second picture, you have to look very carefully the little osprey is white and fluffy and facing to the left.  Look for the beak.

 

 

 

 

We head back for the center of town.  Tricia has told David there is a bakery next to the pier and that’s all it takes.

 

 

 

Cedar Key Diner has a bakery where today among the purchases are a cinnamon bun, a piece of key lime pie, 2 raspberry chocolate scones, a slice of cherry pie and a German chocolate cupcake.   Notice there are 4 + me is 5 people standing in line so no David didn’t eat it all himself although I’m sure he would have been happy to.

 

 

 

Here’s a sampling of the stores along the Cedar Key waterfront.  I’m standing in front of the bakery.

 

 

David is carrying his goodies just outside the bakery which is on the ground floor.  Tricia says the diner above the baker, open only from 7 to 2, has the best hamburgers around.  Sadly we’d already had lunch by the time she told us.

 

 

 

Next door is the pier and our last stop for the afternoon.   The fishermen are here and the pelicans are on guard.

 

 

 

Looks at those eyes.

 

 

We had a fun afternoon with long time friends whom we don’t see nearly often enough.  It is wonderful to see them all so happy in their new winter spots.  Hope we’ll see them on down the road somewhere before so long.  Thanks again ya’ll for the invitation and showing us around your new homes.