Clearwater Lake Recreation Area

Our final campground in Florida was Clearwater Lake Recreation Area, in the Ocala National Forest.  Since we were on a lake, and with the prospect of future lake campsites on the east coast, we went ahead and purchased a small boat from Wal Mart.  

The kids were super psyched to have a boat, and since the four person boat came with a pump, it was a better deal than the two person one.  This made everyone VERY happy!  We got to the lake on a Sunday (a day earlier than originally planned, but we left the Everglades early because of the mosquitoes), but only had two full days at the campground for the kids to get on the lake.                

The four youngest all liked going out together.  They would also break into twosomes, and sometimes do solo trips.  G liked mainly to do solo trips.  I took my two trips and called it good.                    

We also picked up some equipment to make sand castles. We were trying to collect food packages that could be used, but they didn't work out nicely.  So we picked up the 98 cent special at Wal Mart and hit the sand.  I was amazed at how much the kids really enjoyed building sand castles.                  

We also had a heron come to our campsite every morning.  The kids normally didn't wake up early enough to see him, but this was the morning we left, so all the kids got a glimpse of him.  He's clearly accustomed to humans, as we did not frighten him off, even though the kids walked around him to get to the bathroom.  We enjoyed our time at Clearwater Lake.  It's forested, so our solar didn't produce as much as we needed.  Our five nights there were good, but it was time to head out and recharge our batteries.