When tourists think of Florida, they usually envision palm trees. Wide beaches. Mickey Mouse. When I think of Florida, I think of those things, too — but some of the first things that come to mind are a little different. Spanish moss. Scrub pines. Palmetto brush. Clear springs. Marsh grass. Manatees and songbirds and lizards. That’s what I love about Florida. The real Florida that so few tourists are ever lucky enough to see.

This past Saturday, Danny and I headed up to Paynes Prairie, just outside of Gainesville, for a day exploring with Amanda and Julie. When you hear “prairie,” you probably picture covered wagons and a Little House or those pixelated figures from The Oregon Trail. Florida prairie is a little different — and none of us had ever seen it. We all needed a break from our everyday lives. A bit of adventure. A beautiful, beautiful day enjoying that often-unseen side of Florida.It had been quite a while since I’d photographed something entirely for fun, and I had a blast playing around with manual focus to capture insects, experimenting with sunlight and exposure. Everything was shot on my 35 mm f/ 1.4 and 24-70 mm f/ 2.8.Amanda was nice enough to get a quick picture of Danny and me. That’s not something that happens too frequently!Then came the . . . critters, shall we say. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any wild horses or bison. But our alligator count came to 18, plus two more we heard grunting to each other and a third that we never spotted, but saw the underbrush buckling as he moved through the wetlands. Although the sign warned us to stay 20 feet from alligators, there were times when they were much closer to the trail than 20 feet. We might have been really interested in them, but they could barely be bothered to make eye contact with us as they got their afternoon sunbathing/beauty rest on.Alligators are interesting, but I think I prefer them when they’re in the water and I’m on a dock. But this view — I’d be happy to have this view every single day.Thank you, Danny, for this next picture!It was the perfect way to really kick off November — and then the day got even better when we remembered we would set our clocks back an hour that night and get some extra sleep!

We wrapped up the day by seeing my brother in Gainesville and heading out to dinner at a Jamaican restaurant he’d found, the Reggae Shack Cafe. You all know how Danny loves his jerk pork, right? Let’s just say Danny was very, very happy that evening.Going to Paynes Pairie was a chance for all of us to see a part of Florida we had never visited — and just a chance to get away for a while. We agreed we need to go on those kinds of little adventures more often. Like, monthly. So maybe you’ll be seeing a lot more of Florida in the months to come. I sure hope I will.

~ Laura