fun filled weekend with dad

We started off the weekend by driving to Venice, FL yesterday. I wanted to take my dad on the hunt for fossilized shark teeth. He bought a metal colander at Goodwill for $1.00 earlier the day before. We ventured out into the water and sifted through that sand! He mainly did the sifting and brought the piles to me to look through. We got there a little late, so the sun was at a funny angle, and it was sometimes hard to pick out the shark's teeth. we did find 12 teeth though. One is pretty big, another cool one still has a serrated edge.
We were going to eat at Sharky's which was right off of the fishing pier, but the wait was much too long. Instead, we ate at Golden Corral in Punta Gorda, FL. My dad says that it is the worst Golden Corral that he has ever been to, but we still got plenty to eat. We ended up staying in Fort Myers for the night.
In the morning we went to Manatee Park, which was in Fort Myers. we rented a canoe and went searching for manatees on the Orange River channel. For about the first 45 minutes, we did not see any. Then we saw some bubbles and some swirls on top of the water near our canoe. Then, we saw a few manatees coming up to breathe. They stick their nostrils out of the water, blow out the old air and suck in a big breath. Then, back down they go. We were in one area about 200 feet wide where there were 5 or 6. They never came up near us. We would see one and try to fight the wind and paddle over to it. Once we got near where it was, we would see one come up to breathe where we just left! We think they may have been messing with us. We also saw a mom and baby because 2 manatees kept surfacing together. The wind was pushing our canoe so much that for awhile, my dad had to hold onto a giant pole to keep us in one place. Some fisherman asked if we needed any help. pshaw... we are professionals.
The fisherman told us about some manatees in a channel down the way so we went to see them. They swam right under our boat and we could see them much better there. We stayed for awhile but then had to paddle really hard to get back because we were renting the canoes by the hour. So paddle, we did. We did make a pit stop on the way back to see a few more manatees in a shallow area. There were 3 and they were so cute!
After canoeing, we watched mullet and tarpons jumping out of the water in the power plant's channel. These fish were crazy! Then we headed for home. We ended up driving to Lake Okeechobee and going a little ways around it before heading back to Port St. Lucie. We got lucky and went into Pahokee, FL to get a view of the lake. It is a huge lake and reminds me of looking out from Lake Michigan (just no sand dunes). As it turns out, this is the only place to get a view of the lake on the southern part of the lake!
We finished off our day by eating at restaurant near the Fort Pierce Inlet State Park called Archies. It has been there since 1946. It was an inside/outside bar and restaurant. From the road, it looks like nothing significant but once you get in, it was huge! There were so many people there that they ran out of chili and french fries. we had burgers and onion rings, and the food was really good and cheap. There were some guys selling things that they weaved with palm fronds. They were selling these sweet hats for $20, but they told me I could make an offer. This one lady, who referred to herself as 'momma" came up to me and told me that she thought they would take $12 for the hat. So I went up to them and said, "hey I was talking to momma and she said you would sell me the hat for $12." They laughed and then accepted the offer. My hat is so cool, it even has a flower in it made out of palm fronds.
We ended up having a really good weekend, especially the time that we spent with the manatees!