Lake Griffin State Park
A couple of years ago we went to Homosassa Springs State park and, as a veteran, I was given a free lifetime pass to all Florida state parks. Against all evidence to the contrary it was only good for two years. Not sure what that says about life expectancy for seniors in Florida. Nonetheless, it expired in December. Passing by Lake Griffin State Park the other day we decided to stop in and see how to renew it. Easy-Peasy, they renewed it on the spot and issued me a new 2 year pass. Today, we had to do some shopping in the direction of the park so we stopped in for a short walk. During the walk I found a pretty little yellow flower on the path that almost looked like it was plastic. I gave it to Alesa and we looked around the immediate area but could see no source. Alesa said it had a mild smell of vanilla, for me, nothing. Later in the walk we found another one but, this time, as we looked around we saw these flowers everywhere on vines on the ground and way up in the trees. My phone app identified it as the Carolina Jasmine. As we finished our loop we saw a ranger and some volunteers installing cornhole platforms. The park had also installed a number of static exercise stations as well as a frisbee golf hole (cage/net) which we saw on the way in. We asked the ranger what the plans were for frisbee golf and he said that one of the volunteers was very active in frisbee golf and suggested they install a course. They opted to put in one practice 'hole' to judge the popularity and then decide the fate of a course. We inspected the frisbee golf hole on the way out and discovered a painted rock on it. It was a beautiful day for a short hike. We even got to walk our intended path as opposed to last year when we had to take a small detour due to a rather large alligator who had taken up residence right next to our intended path.