visits, springs, and things

Melissa, my friend and landlord (who lives in CA) was in town this weekend with her kids. Two of our childhood friends were in the area as well, so we all met up:

Melissa and her two adorable children, Madeline and Miriam
Me with the kids :-)
Chris visits with Miriam and Melissa
And we added a second Melissa to the mix:
Melissa, Miriam, Chris, Madeline, and Melissa

The two Melissas had to head out around 2pm. After they left, Chris and I decided to visit some local springs and historic sites. First we went to Gemini Springs Park, which was really quite lovely. Swimming is prohibited, although pets are allowed AND they have an off-leash dog park section. I wish I'd known; I'd have brought Mochi.

There might be a reason why swimming is prohibited...
Hello, buddy!
There were many trails through huge old growth oaks, just dripping with Spanish moss.


This was actually *very* comfortable!
We left Gemini Springs and drove to Green Springs Park. It wasn't quite as picturesque as Gemini Springs, but it was still quite nice. It was another place in which swimming was prohibited, although the spring hole was filled with teens happily ignoring that directive. They were also repeatedly climbing up very tall trees and plunging a great distance into the water below. Safety first!

The guy in the black pants has just jumped.

Chris (not preparing to jump) on a tree on the far side of the spring.

Then we drove to DeBary Hall
Unfortunately, it was around 5:30pm, and the place had closed for the day. We were still able to explore outside though.
Driving back to Orlando through Sanford, we spotted this large building and stopped to check it out. It turned out to be the old Georgetown school.


Our last stop of the day was at Big Tree Park. The park used to be the location of a 3500 year old bald cypress tree nicknamed 'The Senator' that was 118 feet tall. It was, sadly, destroyed by arson in 2012. Below are some pictures of me, Chris, Melissa, and her husband Alex visiting The Senator in 2006. Under that is a picture of it today.
Poorly made snapshots of snapshots.
At least you can see the tree.
What remains of The Senator.
To read about his sad demise, click here.

Florida Springs: Fanning Springs & Manatee Springs, Levy County, FL

The road between Orlando and Dekle Beach passes by quite a few springs, as I noticed on my last trip there. I took a short trip to Dekle this weekend (which will be the subject of another post) and decided to stop at one spring on the way there and another on my way back. 

On the way there I stopped at Fanning Springs, which is located in the tiny community of (wait for it...) Fanning Springs on the western edge of Levy County. To be honest, I found the springs rather disappointing. While the water was crystal clear and bright blue - and while I was the ONLY person there other than park staff - I was still a bit let down. For starters, even though the water was perfectly clear, there was no vegetation whatsoever inside the spring head area. None, other than at the very edges. While this might make the springs more comfortable for swimmers (I admit, freshwater "seaweed" is always disconcerting when it rubs along my legs while I'm swimming), it gave the springs a bit of a dead appearance, in my opinion. The other disappointing factor was the concrete dock which separated the springs proper from the run leading out to the river. Again, convenient for swimmers (and boaters), but god what an eyesore.

However, despite my feeling of disappointment, it was an absolutely gorgeous day to visit a spring. Not only was the sky clear and blue, not only was I the only visitor at the park, but it was the first day that it actually felt like fall here in Florida. It's so rare here to have a gorgeous, sunny day that isn't blisteringly hot and tormentingly humid, so having a day of perfect weather made sitting on the spring-shore quite pleasant. And while there might not have been a lot of aquatic plant life, I saw quite a few fish and turtles. I'm guessing they were enjoying the fact that there were no humans in the water to disturb them! I saw an insane amount of mullet, plus one super adorable baby turtle who was only about two inches in diameter.
Mullet!
He wasn't much bigger than this in real life.
On  my way home from Dekle, I stopped at Manatee Springs, located just outside of Chiefland, FL in Levy County. Sadly, despite the arrival of fall temperatures, it's still too warm for manatees to be seeking warmth inside the springs, so I didn't see any. Also, when I arrived at the park it was about to start pouring. I also knew that I had two more hours of driving to go. As such, I didn't spend much time at the park. That being said, I found Manatee Springs much more to my liking than Fanning. The springs seemed more natural (as in no giant concrete dock marring your view), and they seemed a lot more alive vegetation-wise. That being said, there were quite a few swimmers and scuba divers, meaning that the fish and turtles were nowhere to be seen.


You can walk all the way around the spring head. One side (the far side) is bordered by a man-made wall. From the other side, one can walk right into the water from a natural shoreline (although it does have that ramp that the boy is standing on).

Florida Springs: Wekiwa Springs, Apopka, FL

The two closest springs to Orlando are Blue Spring and Wekiwa Springs. I went to Blue Spring last week, so this week I drove over to Apopka to visit Wekiwa Springs. I’ve been to Wekiwa before, but not since 2007. The park tends to fill up on the weekends (you’ll be denied entry if the park is full), but if you go in the morning on a weekday (especially during the school year) it’s not crowded at all. Unfortunately, if you get there around 10:30-11:00 the light is in exactly the wrong spot for getting really quality spring pictures (sigh) although if you want pictures with few people in the spring, it’s the perfect time. Kind of a mixed blessing.

Unlike Blue Spring, at Wekiwa Springs you can walk right up to the spring head; however, unlike Blue Spring (which is still in its natural state), the spring head at Wekiwa is surrounded by a man-made wall. (Many of Florida’s springs were enclosed in such structures in the early 1900s.)

While I didn’t have much luck photographing the springs, I did get some pretty nice insect and animal photographs while hiking the two miles to Sand Lake and back. Of course, Sand Lake itself was pretty underwhelming and not exactly worth the effort (especially when you can drive there instead of hoofing it for four miles).

Grasshopper sex.


Sand Lake, rather underwhelming.

Florida’s Springs: Blue Spring, Orange City, FL

When people who aren’t Floridians think about Florida, they tend to think of Disney and beaches as the state’s main attractions. While the beaches and the theme parks might very well be the things that attract most tourists to the state, Florida’s freshwater springs are to me one of the state’s most attractive features. Since I’m here – and since I have a lot more free time this semester than last (last semester I worked two jobs and took four classes; this semester I’m back down to a more reasonable one job and three classes) – I’ve decided to see how many of the state’s springs I can visit and photograph.

I started off this week by going to one of the two spring-containing Florida state parks in the Orlando vicinity: Blue Spring State Park in Orange City.

I’m going to have to admit that this was not my favorite spring. I’m not sure which spring is my favorite, although Ichetucknee definitely has the home court advantage as I grew up about a fifteen minute drive from the springs. At Ichetucknee and many other springs, it is possible to walk directly up to the shore of the spring-head. This is not possible at Blue Spring. One can swim from slightly downstream of the spring into the spring-head, or one can view the spring from a boardwalk in the woods above the spring. Neither of these options provided the best spring-viewing opportunities for me and my non-waterproof camera. Still, the spring was pretty, and I got some decent photographs. I had heard that Blue Spring was a prime manatee watching location. I was a little disappointed to discover that it’s only a prime manatee watching location in the winter (when the spring’s waters are warmer than those of the nearby St. Johns River). There was not a single manatee in sight. My time at the spring was cut short by the typical Florida afternoon sunshower, which I eventually grew tired of trying to wait out. I did, however, get to witness the amusing – if confusing – running of sopping wet, bathing suit attired folks, frantically scrambling for shelter when it started to rain. Dude. You’re already wet. You’re in a bathing suit. There’s no lightning. Seriously? I just didn’t get it. I wrapped my DSLR in a plastic bag and slowly sauntered on.

The spring head as viewed from the boardwalk above
Another shot of the spring head from the boardwalk above
You can rent kayaks to explore the spring run
The spring run flows into the St. Johns River
Thursby House, 1872
The folks who lived here apparently grew citrus until all their trees were killed in a freeze. They had a steamboat dock which was pretty active until a new railway was built into the area and replaced steamboat travel as the main method of transportation.
Only the home's kitchen was done up 'period' style. The remainder of the house was either closed to visitors or contained some rather repetitive and not-too-informative displays.