Florida Springs

 

 By Alaska Time we get up real early here in Florida. We have most everything done by the time anyone back home even sits down to a decent cup of coffee.

Early Bird Red Bellied Woodpecker

The time may be 4 hours different but the temperature the last two mornings has been just like home. 36 in Anchorage at 2 a.m. and a brisk 38 in Florida this morning.

The locals do not like the cold weather at breakfasts this morning at Grandma Sally’s, everyone was cold. The locals were bundled up in coats, hats and I think I even saw some gloved hands desperately trying to warm up by holding a steaming mug of Grandma’s coffee. Someone even suggested that grandma turn down the blowing air conditioner, but no one new how.

Before the current cold snap we stopped at Silver Springs. It’s an interesting state park sort of in the middle of the state.

Park Entrance

 

We walked in the warm air around some of the parks well marked trails, and still managed to get turned around, had to ask the parks gate keeper where the other parking lot was, and had to walk back along the road to the other lot where the rental car was waiting.

The main feature of the park is the spring’s crystal clear water bubbling up from the aquifers through limestone caves.
Several movies like James Bond Films and the creature from the black lagoon have been filmed here; even episodes of the TV show Sea Hunt have been shot here.

Somehow knowing Sea Hunt was filmed here in these peaceful waters changes almost everything that I felt aboot Lloyd Bridges…

 

On Location Silver Springs

 

We took a ride on one of the parks glass bottom boats were our guide and driver pretty good Captain Joe showed us alligators, the caves deep in the spring, a row boat from the 1500’s left by Spanish explorers, and even the underwater statues left over from filming the tvee show I spy.

 

Glass Bottom Boat Silver Springs

 

Weeki Wachee over on the Gulf Coast is the more famous spring. Its water park is bigger. The pool is deeper and it has the famous Mermaids.

The Mermaid shows at Weeki Wachee started way back in the 1940’s and are still a major attraction.

We waited in the cold morning air for a while before being let into the Under Water Auditorium, it was warmer in there, and it felt good to sit down even if the seats were wood benches…

It wasn’t long before the curtain rose and we were treated to The Little Mermaid show

 

The show was quite good; I would stop in again if I am in the neighborhood. Weeki Wachee the best spring show In Florida.