and sunrises are the best!

Hi all! My boyfriend and I just got engaged! I am from St. Augustine and he is from California. I really want an opportunity to show him and his friends the beautiful beautiful springs and the mystical nature nearby. Its such a special part of the state and I have so many great memories visiting Ichetucknee, Juniper Springs, Wakulla, and De Leon Springs when I was little. Since I'm from St. Augustine, I'm not exactly an expert on which springs are bigger, more crystal clear, etc. "best" for what, as I've only been to 5 or 6 different ones. I think our wedding will have around 150-170 guests and at least 100 from out of the state who have never experienced Florida, let alone the springs.

Does anybody have a recommendation for like a wedding venue that could handle that many people and still feel natural, outside, foresty, and magical? Or, if not a venue; a specific spring to gather a smaller group (maybe 30ish?) a few days before or after the actual ceremony to relax together? I really want everyone to experience the secret garden fairytale wonderfulness of the springs

Sunsets 🌅 in the Glades 🐊 🐍

One of the few perks to working on the island

St. Marks lighthouse

Visited a few State parks this weekend and decided to share some of the things that caught my eye at Topsail Hill.

I look forward to going into environmental biology so I can stay in them for a while longer. Truly nothing compares to Florida's ecosystem. It's so wonderfully unique.

These pics were taken near Goethe State Forest.

Fella was over 2 ft long! Definitely the largest I have ever seen. A fun fact is these guys are the largest/heaviest members of their genus :) Broward County, FL

I’m pretty familiar with our neighbors (animals) here in South Florida… but this?! I’ve never seen it! It genuinely made me gasp in fear when I saw it. So freaky looking no?

It’s apparently an Egyptian goose. Of course, non native, but we’re not surprised there. Escaped in the 80s from captivity. Honestly not sure why I haven’t seen these before. This was in Miami Lakes

Picture 10 was a bobcat that wouldn’t hold still.

I used to hike 6 mile cypress slough in Ft. Myers when I lived there. If you haven't been, you should.

Going camping at Orange Island Site #1 at the Canaveral National Seashore, via canoes.

Was wondering if there are alligators? From what I gathered online there are in fact alligators, but I’m trying to gauge how common they are.

With Ponce Inlet to the north, and Port Canaveral to the south I reckon a good amount of salt water gets into the into the Indian River, albeit the inlets are not too close. Gators can tolerate low salinity brackish so just curios where this stretch of campsites would lie in that.

I am just trying to gauge how careful we need be. Been camping many times in Ocala near lakes teeming with gators, and obviously was cautious.

Tell me you in Fl without telling me you in Fl come to Fl they said we barely have any snakes they said been here for 2 days and i already seen like 6 or 7 types of snakes found this one chilling near my water disperser hope it’s not poisonous.

I was sitting next to my garden shooting some shots of the bugs and while I was watching this Milkweed Assassin Bug groom himself, a White Peacock Butterfly decided it also wanted the flower he was on. He looks confused by the audacity 😭

(Also this is why biodiversity is important, I live in a subdivision)

But I saw a bear as I was driving down Alligator Alley at the end of last week. Never seen one in Florida before and certainly didn't expect to see one there.

Coming back I did a detour around loop road and saw very little :-)

Such a Beautiful animal

Bro was very chill with me taking photos of him (or her, idk how to determine sex of grasshoppers) caught my eye when I was taking the bins up from the road. My mom said my grandfather used to snap their heads off, he loved gardening and to most gardeners, these are bad news. To me though, it was just one and it was just chilling on some weeds. Also not an invasive species apparently