Summer is in full swing. Now that school is out, it is a great time to plan some day-trips. It’s always great, though, to find someplace that is just as fascinating for the kids as it is for the adults. Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park is an adventure for my daughter and me. It’s just big enough to provide a lot to see, but not so large that we come home absolutely exhausted. And the best part is that it just never seems to get old.

Homosassa Springs is an easy drive, simple to find, has lots of parking and a lot to see. The Children’s Education Center and Museum is a good way to begin or end your time at the park. There are exhibits detailing the history of the park, a snapshot of some of the animals you will meet inside and even a live two-headed turtle. You enter the main park area via either a relaxing and educational ride on a boat down Pepper creek or by tram. Keep your hands inside the boat and be on the lookout for native wildlife. You never know what might be sitting on a rock getting a little sun!

Homosassa is home to mostly native species. Follow the meandering paths and you will see manatees, wild cats, the reptile house, Florida black bears, American alligators, crocodiles, Gopher tortoises, otter, deer, and various native birds including: the endangered Whooping Crane and Bald Eagles. The park also houses a Western cougar that serves as an ambassador for the Florida panther. There are only about 50 Florida panthers left in Florida.

The park is a rehabilitation and refuge center for injured West Indian manatees. The floating underwater observatory allows visitors an up-close view of thousands of fresh and saltwater fish, as well as the manatees as they swim past the large plate glass windows making the observers into the observed.

All six of Florida’s venomous snakes are represented in the reptile house. So, in addition to a fascinating close-up look at the snakes, it is also a good opportunity to learn how to recognize those reptiles we should not handle when we find them in the wild.

The Visitor Center and main entrance to the Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park is located at 4150 S. Suncoast Blvd. (US 19 & 98 ) in Homosassa Springs. The park is open 7 days a week 9:00 a.m. until 5:30 p.m., with the ticket counter closing at 4:00 p.m. Wildlife Encounters are at 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Manatee Programs are at 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. The Alligator/Hippopotamus Program is at 12:30 p.m.

Admission is $9.00 per adult (13 and up) and $5.00 per child (3 to 12). Children under 2 are free. Concessions are available.

Call (352) 628-5343 for more information.

Unless you are blogging simply to keep your mom up-to-date while you’re off in South America with the Peace Corps or if you are Creed from The Office, you need to make sure your readers are happy readers. People won’t come back to your blog again if you don’t offer them a good reason to do so.

1. Keep it Interesting
If you like blogging about your pet or what you had for dinner last night, go the extra step and tell your readers a truly humorous or off-the-wall story about that pet or post that to-die-for recipe you used to make the dinner you blogged about last night. Personalize it, but also make sure it has elements that would be of interest to people who don’t know you. If you tell me about the time your dog got stolen from your back yard and then walked 15 miles to find its way home again, I’ll be reading with interest. Give me the secret family recipe for meatloaf that everyone you know loves, and I’ll more than likely even jot it down or bookmark it.

2. Give Your Readers Some Credit
Remove the No Follow tags from your comments. If your readers are taking the time to read your posts and write thoughtful comments, thank them with an outgoing link via their comment. You can download various plug-ins and widgets to automatically remove No Follow from your comments section, or you can simply go in and modify your theme. And as an aside, it’’s tacky to ask your readers to pay you money in order for the No Follow to be removed from their comments. Yes, at least one over-confident blogger is currently implementing this.

3. Reward the Regulars
I added a plug-in to my blog that shows my Top 10 Commentators in my sidebar. They each get an outgoing link. The list resets itself monthly, so it’s possible for anyone to make their way into my list at any given time. Look out, though, for other sites that use this feature but add a nofollow tag to the links. It’s no more useful to you than having your name up in lights.

4. Get in on the Conversation
Comment on your own blog! Reply to comments your readers have left. More than one of my readers has suggested that I add a threaded comment feature to my blog and I am working on that this weekend. I enjoy so many of the comments I read here and have picked up some great tips, too.

5. Return the Favor
Take the time to link back to your loyal readers’ sites and to comment on their blogs as well. It goes both ways when it comes to retaining readership and fostering commitment. Pure Blogging and Roberta Ferguson compile a weekly list of links to posts on their top commentator’s sites.