They are totally into the theme-park vacation. By judging how many theme parks that are located in Florida and the vast amounts of people traveling from all over the world to enjoy these ventures I could say with confidence that it is extremely popular.
I must be an old fart because it would be absolute torture for me to stand in hour long lines and crowds at 96F temps just to go on "rides" that make me vomit.Ugh..No thanks.
So my husband and I did the "non-disney" route and did things like go bird watching, visited a wild bird rehab,went antiquing, splashed around in a pool and snorkled at blue springs state park.
What a gem the blue springs state park was!
In the cooler climate manatees reside nearby. I didn't see any manatees but saw the sign posting for "warning: alligators!". And sure enough, I saw one swimming by outside the "safe swimming area".
It cost a mere $6.00 per carload to enter the park. They have bathrooms, a snack bar, hiking trails and a clean picnic area as well as the swimming hole.
The water temperture is suppose to be 72F year round but I think because of the cold winter it was remarkably colder. I would guess the temp closer to 69F-which is still warm for us New Englanders.
Most of the people at the ladder were taking forever to get in the water exclaiming, "oh my God! it is so cold!!!" I got a bit "impatient" and "nudged" one whiny dramatic teenager in the water saying, "oh for God's sake...get in!"
The water was remarkably clear and clean. It was cleaner than our hotel's tap water. This spring is "famous" also for it's underwater caves. We spotted a couple of scuba divers at the entrance of the cave. I snorkled down to about 15 feet or more to the entrance. People had carved their initials into the limestone. I was testing myself against one teen boy to see how deep I could free dive down. I did OK for an old scrot.
On the surface, lots of chubby tourists were floating around on tubes that you could rent. I noticed that a humongous horse fly landed on me. It was at least an inch long.
It was the biggest one I've ever seen. I swished it away. I figured that the fly would lose interest in my leathery zomig stinky skin and my husband's skinny garlic infused skin when there was lots of white shiny soft plump flesh to chew on instead. And sure enough, the pudgy kids on the floats were screaming.
The fish were interesting here at the springs. There were gars everywhere as well as turtles and sunfish.
It was definitely a great place to spend a hot day!
Your idea of a vacation certainly matches mine, V. I've never been to any of those theme parks in FL and I probably never will. No great loss.
ReplyDelete