Ochlockonee River State Park

The amazing desert!

The dinner!

Our family!

We settled into Ochlockonee River State Park on Thursday and immediately cleaned up and headed to Tallahassee to visit Arlyn and her mother, Flor for dinner. We had a great evening with them as well as Arlyn's aunt, cousin Marlon and his wife Racquel. We ate the most amazing foods...lasagne made with plantains (Dominican recipe), Philippine-style spring rolls made with meat, a beautiful salad with huge chunks of avocado and chickpeas over spinach, and the Arm of Mercedes (Philippine desert with meringue wrapped around egg yolks cooked with sweetened condensed milk). It was a wonderful family evening and we were so glad to have been able to be there.

Ochlockonee is a small campground with only 30 spots, so it has been very quiet. We have easy access to the river and were able to get our kayaks inflated and carried over in a matter of minutes. So on Friday we kayaked and then explored the park's other trails on our bikes. We saw little wildlife along the river save for thousands and thousands of tiny little crabs that scurried across the mud as we approached in the kayaks. On bikes, however, we managed to startle three beautiful white-tailed deer; they bounded across the trail and into the fields. We got in two nice long paddles, one of Friday and another on Saturday.

At Reflection Pond

Yes, this is for real, no Photoshop tricks!

The most unusual thing we have seen in this park is white squirrels! These are quite rare little creatures; there might also be some albinos around but we did not see any. There are some birds we're seeing that we've not been able to identify, but maybe Marty will still get a photo or two so we can. We have seen a red-headed woodpecker along with a yellow-bellied sapsucker and tons of grackles who awaken us in the morning and then sing to us in the evening. At times their singing is really deafening.

By the thousands, if not millions along the river

One thing we have noticed in several of the parks are birders...you know, those folks who walk around with binoculars and floppy hats peering up into the trees or down into the bushes. There are tons of them here and at other parks we've visited. We decided that folks come from all over because of the winter bird population here. Besides that, Florida puts out several amazing publications showing where birds are seen and when! We have found that this state does an excellent job of making certain you know what you'll to see and do in each of their parks.

Sunday, March 25 we move on to the next park.