Swansational

In my last blog I showcased the Ocala's horse fever sculptures. Lakeland, Florida, which is well know for it's swans has a similar themed artwork based on painted swan sculptures. Swan sculptures are placed all over town and seem to be the mascot of choice. Even the city logo has a swan incorporated in it. Lake Morton and Lake Mirror are in the downtown area, and are home to hundreds of swans (real ones not the painted ones).






I have not been in Lakeland in a very long time, so when I heard about the painted swans I knew I would get there eventually. I also knew that Geocaching would be the reason I went. I knew where some of the swan were located but there were some that I discovered because there was a cache nearby.

Now this first swan is, just like the Ocala horse with the similar theme, one of my favorites. I really think the American flag is very user friendly with art. As long as it is use well.

As I said earlier Geocaching was the reason that I was in Lakeland and I was doing the power run down south of the city on Hwy 37.




There were around 100 caches in that run and I wanted to get as many as I could so I divided my swan hunting to some before and some after.




The swan dressed as a doctor was the first one of the day. As you can imagine it was in front of a hospital as it should be. The swan in the lower right I did not know about. I stopped at the Walgreen's in the background to use the restroom. When I cam out I glanced across the street and saw it. I found a couple like that and it definitely added to the fun of the hunt.


I thought the swan in the fountain was a natural fit. Definitely one of my favorites.




Now at this point I was off to do some Geocaching. Hwy 37 proved to be long and I have to say kind of boring. The main purpose of a power run of course is to just get your numbers up. Nothing special about the hides and I did all the ones on the right side of the highway on the way down and then did the same on the way back up.

I should mention that this was the first real test of the new camera I had gotten for Christmas. A Nikon D3000. I love my camera and take it with me whenever I go Geocaching because you just never know what you will see and now I could get really good pictures. I was especially glad to have it on highway 37. On the way down I came across several wild hogs that were feasting on some form of road kill. With out my new camera I never would have been able to get this picture.




I had to go through Lakeland on my way back home and even though it was soon to be dark I still had time for a couple of more swans. The Publix swan was one of the ones I knew about but I thought it was going to be somewhere else. I got lucky that it was closer to downtown. Lakeland also has another art project that is associated with butterflies. This one I added to this blog because as you can see there is a swan painted on it's wings. I was also very close to the Publix swan.












As the sun was going down one more swan beckoned me. I think that this one actually looks better as the light was fading because I needed to use the flash. Somehow I think it enhances the picture.




The day was over and to tell the truth I had barely scratched the surface of both Geocaching and the painted swans here in Lakeland. There are still many things to see and do and I will be back soon because,




More discoveries await...