Parks of Florida's Space Coast - Cape Canaveral Playground - Manatee Park

Manatee Park is a fantastic little slice of heaven. This park has a large covered seating area, ample walking paths with exercise equipment along the path, and a beautiful covered deck for observing Manatees and other creatures who frequent the Banana River. It's a gorgeous place to watch the sunset. At this park there are water fountains, bathrooms, and plenty of parking. There is also a fun and challenging playground. The playground has swings, slides, and a little table. It is fun for all ages.

Today our 4 year old was out of school, so she came with me to the park! 

First we stopped by the bat house. But we didn't see any bats today. They usually come out at night.

We got there just in time to watch a rocket launch. Today SpaceX sent up another batch of Starlink sattelites. It was a beautiful launch. We saw a bright light shoot up into the sky from behind the trees. A bunch of people were gathered at the park to watch the launch together. We met some nice folks and enjoyed feeling the ground shake.

We didn't get any pictures ourselves, but here's one that someone took from a cruise ship here in Port Canaveral. (Link to the original: https://content.invisioncic.com/j283755/monthly_2020_02/large.887810501_IMG_5548edit.JPG.f566dd45b6791babb9e18df6a83534a9.JPG )

After the launch, we went to play!

She loved climbing and swinging and going down the slides at this fun playground. But her favorite part of the visit was playing with the other children who came here to play. The other kids had just gotten off of their cruise, and they were happy to play in a sunny park during the time between their cruise ending and their plane ride back to the cold Midwest. This is a great example of why Cape Canaveral is called "The Space Between".

While we played, we saw lots of Love Bugs ( Plecia nearctica ) and our 4 year old was a little afraid of them at first. Then we looked a little closer. We saw that most of them were really two bugs stuck together. She had a lot of fun watching them. And she even tried to get them to climb on her hand -- once she realized that they weren't about to bite her. We ran around and took lots of pictures of the love bugs. Here are a few!

Questions for discussion:

What is your favorite part about visiting a park?

Have you ever taken photos of bugs?

Have you ever seen a rocket launch?

We love this beautiful park!