Central Florida adventure Days 1-2
After getting a voucher from Spirit for 5000 miles, I fantasized about a big road trip around Colorado for things like Rocky Mountain National Park, Garden of the Gods, Pike’s Peak, hot springs, and more. It was going to be a gamble since some of the high-altitude scenic highways open Memorial Day weekend.
In the end, it turned out that we couldn’t use the voucher for a Colorado trip that weekend so we picked something local instead. Instead we planned a joint Crystal River and Gainesville adventure. I booked the first couple of days at the Crystal River Plantation which was a lovely little resort on the water. We arrived late on Wednesday night after a long work day, but this let us have a leisurely wake-up in the morning. I went for a walk from the hotel room while I waited for Jeff to wake up. A very lovely little neighborhood surrounding the manatee winter hangouts.
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After a granola bar breakfast, we tried the Three Sisters Springs. When we pulled up, a ranger came out to tell us that we can park and look if we want but we’ll have to pay a fee and probably won’t see any manatees. Her underwhelming enthusiasm made us decide to move on and check off the next things on the list.
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We went to Crystal River Preserve State Park to stamp my passport and go for a hike. I also lucked out and got the last two tickets for the sunset boat cruise to use the next day – I thought for sure they would be sold out! It’s the last tour of the season, so they were really the last two tickets.
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Next, we stopped at the Crystal River Archeological State Park. They have a nice visitor center and the ranger gave us a personal tour and history lesson before we ventured outside
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We found a combined brewery and winery for lunch – Copp Brewery. They had a lot of tasty fruit wines and a delicious grilled cheese sandwich in a pretty tasting room.
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With our bellies full and on the verge of food-coma, we went back to the hotel for a big fat nap. We woke up in time for a lazy evening and dinner at Margarita Breeze on the water. While Jeff was checking in his beer in his Untapped app, it reminded him that he checked in a beer at this same location 5 years ago. The photo was taken from practically the same table! Somehow neither one of us had a memory of eating at this restaurant 5 years ago when we came to swim with manatees during my residency.
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After a good lazy night’s sleep, we got up early for a chartered tour of the bay and manatee swimming adventure. It is technically late in the season, so the chances of seeing a manatee was much more slim. The weather was perfect and the water was comfortably warm. We lucked out two-fold and saw a mom and baby manatees by the boat while we were boarding the boat and then found some curious manatees out in the water, including an adorable, playful baby. I just wanted to hug it, but made sure to be respectful and just take lots of pictures with no touching. What a cute baby!!!
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We also got to swim the Jurassic spring which was teeming with mullet – it felt magical to watch them swirling around under us. I also learned how hard it is to dive in a wetsuit – it makes me bounce right back to the top like a cork in the water. This boat trip did make me think for a hot second about living on the edge of a spring like this. The Jurassic Spring bumps up to the property of a few small houses – can you imaging this being your back yard? It’s soooooo beautiful, and in the in the winter, it’s full of adorable fat manatees 🙂
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After some hot chocolate and a hot shower, we drove south to the Ellie Schiller Homosossa Springs Wildlife State Park. This park is beeeeyouteeeful! It’s also a good park for Jeff because it feels like a zoo/amusement park instead of simply a hiking trail. This is a really nice set up for the animals, and it is very suitable for the photographer with a relatively natural interface between the trails and the animals.
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We had a lovely dinner at a local place with NOLA flair called Seafood Sellers before heading out for our sunset boat tour on the Gulf. The ranger gave us a nice natural history tour, wine, Oreos, and a setting for a gorgeous sunset on the Gulf.
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The two hours flew by and we were back before we knew it. We walked the hotel grounds and watched the end of the How to Train Your Dragon movie with the kids outside by the pool before saying goodnight to Crystal River.
