Crystal River with my Sweetheart

Today was bright and sunny with a cloudless sky - perfect except for an overnight hard frost and a daytime high of 55! Undaunted, we courageously set off to find out what makes Crystal River tick.
The Suncoast Highway runs through Crystal River giving it the appearance of a busy and bustling city while, in fact, there are only about 3,500 inhabitants - a pretty small city by most standards. However, being that Florida is the state of the Newly Weds and Nearly Deads, there is both a Walgreens pharmacy and a CVS pharmacy doling out drugs to the Wrinklies. An important statistic proudly promoted by the city is that the number of resident manatees averages 43.
West of town is West Fort Island. With such a romantic name this had to be worth a visit and indeed it was, even though there is no evidence that a fort ever existed there and no sign of an island either. Nonetheless, being a brisk winter day it was close to deserted and offered a boat ramp, some parking, a view of the Crystal River Nuclear Power Station and a couple of observation decks - plenty of things for nitwits like us to gawk at including Porpoises, Herring Gulls and Black Skimmers.

Next, a brilliant get rich quick scheme was born and died within a few hours of our arrival. The plan was for Marian, disguised as a mermaid, to sing her siren song and lure a treasure laden ship to founder on the rocks, at which we could make off with salvaged jewels and things. No ships came by and then Marian got cramp in her butt so we decided to eat our marmalade sandwiches instead.

On the road to the phantom fort is the Crystal River Shrimp Company with a small fleet of shrimp boats and a similar fleet of refrigerated trucks. There are also several bird watching trails leading off into the swampy land either side of the road. Anyway, we stomped around the area for a while, took a few pictures and pretty soon it was sunset. Could anyone ask for a better day?