Spring Break - Florida, part 1

Post-auction I had planned to meet my good buddy Dom in Florida for a few days and then head to see grandma and my aunt. I was very ready to get away when the time came, and had my bags packed a few days in advance. The trip was nearly 14 or 16hr door to door, so I was pretty pooped after my red eye flight landed in Florida around 9:30am. Dom, being the most accommodating person ever, came and picked me up, took me back to his condo, showed me around, then went in to work late. His condo isn't his main home, but a getaway he shares with his mom. He was in FL for work. I ended up sleeping 1/2 the first day away, but that evening, you can see the below sunset we caught after having dinner with his aunt, and her boyfriend and his coworker. Ironically, the first full meal I had was Dungeness Crab - a species native to the west coast - but Dom was pretty excited about it, so I didn't burst his bubble w/ my environmental babble. 

Despite Dom taking off a few days to play after he worked, he kept insisting it was "my" trip and I had to decide what we were doing, easy. The first full day I was there was full of adventure. First stop, 15min down the road from his condo, we went to a county park to see manatees! For all the many times I'd been to this state, I'd never seen them. There was a canal that a powerplant dumped it's cooling water into and the manatees swim into it when the gulf is colder than this canal. We were nearly the end of the season that they do this but were lucky and saw probably 5 or 6 in the time spent there. It was overcast which didn't lend for good viewing but it was still pretty thrilling.