Horseshoe Beach and Cedar Key Fl.

We spent a week at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park, there wasn't any big concerts while we were there but they had huge ones coming up in the very near future.  We drove down to Horseshoe Beach the first day and went through the west side of the Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge.  The water was so clear Manuel took pictures of the fish at one of the fishing bridges in the park.  The town is pretty small but it had a good restaurant....... I had the shrimp and Manuel had Mullet.  To me it tasted like trout so I'm glad I didn't have that.  The picture of Manuel was at the first beach we stopped at in the Gulf of Mexico.  The town is built on stilts and easy access to the water.  The next day we got up and drove down the other side of the Suwannee River to Cedar Key, Fl.  Nice town and so much fun.  Cedar Key is a 200 year old fishing village.We took a boat out into the Gulf of Mexico and around the islands and out to the Cedar Key National Wildlife Reserve.

These are some of the birds that we saw on the islands when we went out in the boat, this is the Magnificent Frigatebird. They have the largest wing span to body weight rato of any bird.  They can stay aloft for one week.  They can not take off from the ground, they have to take off from a perch.  The ones with the red chest are males, to attrack the female birds.

The Peligans were so beautiful, white and browns and some white with brown... The Blue Heron is on an Oyster bed.  The water is so warm they don't harvest these Oysters. But they do harvest the Oysters that are in the water.  A person can harvest a 5 gallon bucket as their limit. 

The Picture of the town was taken from the boat also, the restaurants are great and so much shopping.  The picture of the fish in the boat I DID NOT TAKE THIS PICTURE.  It is a groupper, and that is what I had for lunch, the biggest sandwich I have ever seen, two huge pieces of groupper (fish), two handfuls of fries, a hush puppy, two slices of tomato, two slices of onion, 5 slices of pickles and lettuce.  I left all the bread and ater the other stuff..... Called a Groupper Sandwich all for $8.49 at Tony's Seafood Restaurant. Manuel had the shrimp, and loved it too, paid more and got less... ha ha guess shrimp is more expensive, as the groupper is a huge fish and probably cheaper..... I'm not real big on restaurant fish and this was great.