Originally, this post was to be written about our wonderful trail hike through Bulow Creek State Park and the beautiful live oaks. But since the trip was neither wonderful, nor did we complete the hike, it is now about bugs. Why? Because our entire day was spent fighting off Lone Star Ticks. 

I have never, in 42 years of living, seen so many ticks in one day!

Every few seconds, I had to pull a crawling tick off of my pants or off of a child's legs. Yes..summer has arrived in Florida.  I posted a note about this on Facebook which led to a conversation about Florida bugs..and here I am.

Yesterday, I told you about the history aspect of our nature hike. Today I share with you the nature study aspect of our hike. This park afforded us the opportunity to see butterflies, a wide variety of trees, animal tracks, sea life and more. Here is a sampling of the photos we took.

Today, we visited Tomoka State Park. This turned out to be such an interesting place! On our lunch break, I noted that we probably couldn't see all there was to see in a single day. It simply isn't possible. I do believe we'll make repeated trips in order to really explore all we can (whatever that means!).

While today would have been a perfect day for canoeing, our goal was an any-weather hike, discovering nature and history. The hike is a half-mile trail which winds its way through the oak hammocks that were once inhabited by Timucuan (TI-moo-kwan) Indians.  (For those who are unaware, a  hardwood hammock is a "dense stand of broad-leafed trees that grow on a natural rise of only a few inches in elevation". They occur on patches of limestone, sand, and shell at elevations that usually do not flood.)