Rainbow River

We traveled to Rainbow River State Park for Thanksgiving this year. I made the reservations late (early June) so we ended up traveling on Wednesday. A two hour drive took nearly three hours, everyone came to Florida this year.

The cold nights gave way to sunny, warmer days so we served the holiday dinner at the picnic table. Karl cooked the turkey and potatoes on the grill, I did the vegetables, gravy, and stuffing using the slow cooker, microwave, and two burner stove. We did pre-make the stuffing and gravy, our very small kitchen area only handles so much. A couple we met who camp for Thanksgiving most years told us they cook everything in advance and re-heat it on site, and it appeared several others did the same. The camping section of the park remained nearly full the entire four days we camped, with plenty of families, kids, and couples walking or biking, or heading to the river to tube or kayak.

We went to the main part of the park where the spring and gardens are located on Saturday. Even on this cold sunny morning we saw a couple of people swimming, one in a wet suit but the others in standard swimming attire. The springs maintain a temperature of 72 degrees year around, so in the water likely felt fine but that fifty-ish degree air temperature in the morning with the light breeze from the north must make getting out just a bit chilly.

We hiked the garden trails, and Karl got this shot of the water falls. Fellow campers informed us that they reserve their Thanksgiving sites 11 months in advance to get the days and sites they want, so we need to start doing the same.

Update on us: We started blogging when we started our business in 2008/09, and generally I (Kathleen) handled the writing and photography for the blog and Karl the printing, matting, and framing of our photography for the retail end of the business, all done in house. As we decreased the retail end over the past few years we started working on the blog together. I still write most of the posts (with Karl as my editor as usual), but now we share the photography that is posted.