July 27th, 2021

And the Sunday Adventure Continues with Part Two!  If you read yesterdays post, you saw that Tim and I visited the Sunken Gardens in St Petersburg Florida on Sunday and had a wonderful time.  So good in fact, that we weren't ready for the day to be over yet.  Tim read about a pretty park just a few blocks away from the gardens called, Crescent Lake Park. (photo above)

Be forewarned though, do not confuse Crescent Lake Park with Crescent Lake.  Because those are two completely different places.   In this case, Crescent Lake is north of Orlando and about 195 miles north east of St. Pete's (about a 3 hour drive).  This is Crescent Lake Park. Completely different.  Yeah, I know, it's all kinds of crazy. But when you live in Florida you learn pretty quickly that crazy is normal :)

About Crescent Lake Park, way back in the early 1900's a very nice man named, C. Perry Snell owned this area,  about 48 acres, which he envisioned as becoming a city park.  He sold it to the city at a very low price, with the stipulation that it be used as such in 1919.   The city also purchased a few adjacent acres thus growing the  park to it's current 56 acres and voila, a lovely city park was born.

There is a baseball field (which by the way, once upon a time was the training field for the New York Yankees.  Think Babe Ruth!) , large grassy areas, so many lovely trees and benches and a paved walkway that circumnavigates the entire 18 acres lake.  A good sized playground sit on one end and an old water tower, circa 1923, which an artist has painted to look like an aquarium sit on the the other end.

In between, is that pretty lake and all of the creatures that it attracts.  I understand that back in the 1920's one of the critters it attracted were some monkeys but we saw no signs of those.  Didn't see the alligator we were warned about either.  But we did see people relaxing and reading and even snoozing under the trees,  kids playing on the playground and families riding bikes.  Dogs of all sizes were walked and hammocks were strung in between trees for a nice afternoon nap.   There was fishing and picnicking and space for kids to just run around being goofy.

The surrounding neighborhood is adorable with nicely kept houses and tidy yards.  There were a few "for sale signs" and of course I looked them up.  While most of the homes are a little older, they all seem to be as beautiful inside as out.  What a wonderful place to choose to live, right across from this gorgeous park, only a few blocks from the Sunken Gardens and restaurants and shops and well, we were utterly charmed.

I got a few photos of the area wild residents too.   Some on the water, of course:

Others preferred the greener areas:

One showoff (it's always the Anhinga)  living the fence life:

A dragon fly and several very entertaining squirrels:

And what I call, The Showdown!  There was a bird and a turtle both trying to go opposite directions on what was clearly a one-way bridge.  When they met, face to face in the middle, I could hear the music from, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly playing in my head.  We had to just stand and watch to see how it all turned out.....

There was no end to the entertainment found at Crescent Lake Park on Sunday.  But the day was growing later and we still had the drive home so reluctantly, we headed back south.  Perhaps we will return another day.

Oh and I neglected to tell you yesterday, something that I only just learned. And I absolutely love it.  A group of Flamingos is called a Flamboyance!  Isn't that perfect!!  HAHAHAHAHAH!

Have a great day!