Homosassa State Park

Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park in Homosassa Springs, Florida. It is home to 6 female manatees who cannot be re-introduced to the wild but have become a large tourist attraction. It is also home to many other animals such as a hippo named Lu, alligators, a bobcat and several species of birds.
When we first arrived at the park we waited in line for a boat to take us across a bit of water. After watching the first boat fill up, we realized that it would likely be faster to drive around the water and park on the other side than wait for the next one. So that is exactly what we did. I am writing this so that if you visit yourself, you just drive to the second entrance.
The first thing we did was watch the manatee program. A woman told us about manatees and specifically the six in the park and then they fed them entire heads of lettuce. You could also view the manatees from under the water, though the longer they ate and swam around, the dirtier the water got and therefore the harder it was to view them.
Once the manatee program was done, we toured the park and viewed the other animals. It happened to be Lu the Hippo's 50th birthday and he received a cake to eat and a tire to play with. For that reason he spent most of the day on the bottom of his pond playing with and chewing on his new tire. He came up for air once in a while, but he really didn't care about the tourists that day, and he was therefore not very photogenic.
Alligators on the other hand are incredibly photogenic as they really just sit in one spot, rarely moving an inch. I learned later on in the trip that alligators are at every park in Florida as you can pretty much just open the gates and they will come in. The same can be said about most wild birds.This crane for example was not a resident of the park, just a daily visitor during feeding time. He did, however, still act like it was his territory and puffed up as the other birds got close to him and his food spot.We watched the bird get fed as well, though this was a far smellier event - and louder too. The typical Florida shorebirds were there: ibis, cranes, pelicans, flamingos, etc, all just waiting to have their photo taken. The only thing that hindered this trip was the weather. It didn't rain but it was fairly chilly and walking in the shady woods was a little uncomfortable. That being said, it was still a really nice park and another great example of the rehabilitation efforts going on in this state.