During late October I headed down to the Gulf Coast to collect Atlantic White Cedar cones for work.  I started outside of Jacksonville FL on the Ocala National Forest.  While I found no white cedar I did find some stunningly turquoise water filled with large jumping mullet at the Juniper Springs Recreation Area.  Near this same spot I observed the boiling springs in one of the small creeks.  It was neat to see the sand  “boiling” along the creek bed.

From the Ocala I headed over to Apalachicola National Forest where I collected in the rain from down near Tate’s Hell State Forest along the panhandle.  The following day I collected along the picturesque sandy bottomed Blackwater River.  Throughout the day I watched kayakers paddling up and down the water while there was a military training taking place in the water.

On Thursday I drove over to the Grand Bay National Eestuarine Research Reserve not knowing what to expect as I had not yet explored this site.  In making plans to work here it was mentioned they may have a boat for us and they did.  After talking with the reserve manager we headed over to the river with one of the technicians for 5 hours of collecting from along the Escatawpa River.  Collecting via boat was definitely a highlight of this trip as well as collection trips to date.  During the collections we saw a Bald Eagle, Northern Harrier, and Osprey.  That evening I headed down Biloxi for dinner and to watch the shrimp boats going out at sunset.

Friday I headed up to Hattiesburg MS to collect from the swamps along Poplar Creek just south of the ammunition bunkers at Camp Shelby.  After a succesful morning I drove up to Atlanta for the night before heading back home.

A few short days later Kate and I headed back down to Atlanta for a family wedding.  It was nice to get back to Atlanta as I had no time to enjoy the city on my previous visit.  While in Atlanta we hit some of the highlights, including the Atlanta Aquarium, Centennial Olympic Park, and the Varsity.  Both the city and the wedding were very fun and we had a great time seeing so much of the family.