Some days just turn out better than originally planned. After driving by the sign for Blue Spring State Park countless times in the years since we have moved to Florida, we finally made it there Saturday in hopes of seeing a manatee or two. The only part of the driving directions I knew was what exit to get off at and I knew that parking would be 6 dollars. That was the extent of my planning efforts for this trip. I didn’t set my expectations low, but I figured we would be there for a short while, then drive back home and move on with our weekend.
We almost had the place to ourselves early on.
The closest I have been to a manatee was at SeaWorld a few years back when Jim, Sarah, and Jeff were visiting. Though that was great (mostly because of the company), seeing them in the wild was spectacular. We were amazed at how close we were able to get to them even with the barriers put up to prevent people from getting in the water during this time of year.
Came right up to to say hello!
Of all shapes and sizes.
We saw one almost immediately and then a few more shortly after that. It was so quiet there (minus the thousands of people at SeaWorld) that we would often hear them before realizing where they were. Going in I assumed that it would be great to see a few, but there were times where we could see over twenty just from where we were standing.
Though we forgot our video camera, The Wife was smart enough to take some video using our digital (still) camera. Here is a sample of our time at the park.
When leaving the park we decided to meander home rather than taking a more direct route back. Not too long after that we drove past what we thought was a farmer’s market and we couldn’t resist turning around to check out the goods. Almost immediately it was apparent that it was probably 75 percent flea market and 25 percent farmer’s market, but there was food there to be had, so I was pretty excited.
All of this could be yours . . .
Looks like brunch to me!
If you are interested in my not-so-breakfast-like mid morning snack (and review of that meal) check out the first 3 minutes or so of this video (or the last five for additional footage).
Leaving there we passed through DeLand, which I had never been to before so we stopped and walked around for a while to do some window-shopping. I must say that it was quite a good time and fortunately my tacos held me over to our eventual lunch that came on our drive home. In an effort to keep this post a reasonable length (both for me and you), the remainder of our day will be recapped another time in the near future. I will say that there was beer and it was good!
Downtown DeLand was bustling.
Until part 2 . . .
And I seem to recal the Manatii (that’s french for two manatee) at Seaworld were taking a crap in thier pool at the time.