A walk around Sweetwater Wetlands Park

 

Location: Gainesville, Fl

Date: 5/25/2015

 

It was the last day of the long holiday weekend and we wanted to do something outdoors, but nothing too strenuous. The city of Gainesville just recently opened a new park called Sweetwater Wetlands park just north of Paynes Prairie State park. This new park was created as a way to create a buffer for the water flowing down Sweetwater creek and cleanse it before it enter the prairie.  An article describing the restoration project can be found at this link. We decided to visit this new park and see what it had to offer.

Some of the boardwalks built along the wetlands

 

Some of the flowering plants

 

The water lilies in full bloom

 

 

 

 

Camping at Anastasia State park and attending the TPC Golf Tournament

 

Date: 5/8/15 – 5/10/15

Location: Anastasia State Park

 

For the past several years we’ve bought tickets to the PGA tour stop in Ponte Vedra, Florida. The Players Championship is a fun tournament to attend since it has one of the strongest fields for a golf tournament during the year. It’s not one of the golf’s majors, but they sure are trying to push it in that direction. 

We’ve been combining our trip to the tournament with a camping stop at Anastasia State Park, which is about 20 miles south of the tournament location.  We usually make a reservation for a camping spot about 10 months before the tournament so we are sure to get a site. Anastasia is a very popular campground and fills quickly on most weekends.

We snagged site 111, which turned out to be a great site, very large with a good amount of spacing from the neighbors. This would have been a good site to share with family who often joins us on our trips, but this time around it was just Julie and myself with this huge spot.

Site 111 at Anastasia State Park. Plenty of room to spread out!

 

One Saturday we went to the Tournament Players Championship, getting there at about 10 in the mourning. It was a perfect weather day for a tournament and the crowds were large. We did have tickets to the Michelob Blue Room, so we had a place retreat to for some relaxing, food and drink.

The famous 17th island green at TPC Sawgrass before any players came through.

 

And here is it much later with the crowds watching the leaders play through.

 

Besides attending the PGA tournament, we also did some bike rides and walking on the beach. The weekend went by too quickly, but it’s always great to get away for a weekend of camping.

A little clouds and rain during our evening walk on the beach.

On Sunday morning (Mothers Day) we packed up and headed home. With the weather in Florida warming up for the summer, this may be the last camping trip we make until the fall. We do have a few reservations already set up for later this year and need to make some more plans before things fill up.