Last weekend, (the 17th) we went to Wakulla Springs State Park south of Tallahassee.  Our plans started when we were looking for something to do on a weekend that had forecast-ed highs in the 70s. At first I had this awesome plan to go to Daytona Beach, then to Canaveral National Sea Shore . This would have involved an overnight stay, all of which could have been done cheaply, but in the end, we decided to make it a day trip and looked for local things instead.

Joshua had heard a story about the Springs in Florida last month on NPR and was excited to try one out. I was skeptical, but agreed to go. I was mostly skeptical because my experience is that swimming in rivers and inland lakes is just gross. (Murky bottoms, slimy rocks, seaweeds.)

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised at how nice they were! Clean, clear, and cool. There were lots of people there, but once you got to past the shore line, there was a lot of room to spread out. There was also shaded areas in the water, so the sun wasn’t that horrible either.  At Wakulla Springs they also had a boat tour, which was pretty cool, we even got to see manatees in the wild!

Here are a few pictures of our boat tour (no manatees though, we enjoyed those screen free):

Birds and Turtles Sunning in the River

Cypress Trees

Spanish Moss on the Trees

Scholastica, the Happy Baby

Scholastica’s favorite face to make.

Alligator!

Look at how long that is!