Alexander Springs

Saturday we headed out to Alexander Springs. It was gorgeous! The spring was really shallow in most spots and crystal clear. I snorkeled for the first time which was pretty cool. I got to see tons of little fishes. The best part was when the shallow bottom dropped off to reveal a deep chasm where scuba divers explored. It was so weird to look down and see scuba people exploring a whole different world. The springs were a lovely 72 degrees which apparently is considered cold for most Floridians. I don't think any lake around Rochester gets above 65 degrees on the hottest day of the year. As nice as it was, my fingers turned blue after awhile and I needed to warm up. We went hiking on a nature trail through the swamp. It wound through the swamp and stopped at a couple of overlooks of the springs. It was creepy to be so close to water and yet be completely enveloped by the swamp. It's so dense. On the way back I had the worst moment of the trip when we encountered a serpent on the trail. Luckily, Jess spotted it first and was able to get it off the boardwalk so I could continue safely along. The thing was probably 10 inches long!! Eeewww.
The second most horrible moment came later when Jess stopped to get hot boiled peanuts. She always raves about these things and I was really excited to try them. She must have never told me exactly what they were or how they were made because if she had, I would never have tried them. Apparently, they take green peanuts and boil them for DAYS and then make people pay money to eat soggy, wet nuts. EW! The whole point of nuts is that they are hard and salty. Let me paint a picture: the boiling releases all the starches so they smell like potatoes and with the skins left on, when you crack them open they look like kidney beans. There is no crunch! First, I tried a sample at the vendors and thought it was gross. I chalked it up to having sat out for awhile. Then, I grabbed a fresh, hot one out of the bag and was even more disgusted. Jess refused to believe that I would hate them so she found me the perfect one (so she claims) and I ended up spitting it out and throwing it out the window because I couldn't stand anymore. Ugh. I couldn't fathom the fascination with these things. Then when we got back to her house her family practically tore them out of her hands and devoured them. Huh!? I guess I can never truly be a Coastie now.
That night we had a Mexican feast and played Yahtzee. I had never played before but figured it couldn't be too hard as the whole point of the game was based on the roll of the dice (literally). I got excited when I got a Yahtzee on my first roll. However, I never rolled a good hand after that and totally tanked. It's the Yahtzee curse apparently.

Silver Springs

Despite my success at the beach I had to receive a different water safety talk this time involving canoeing in the swamp. Rule 1-stay AWAY from the bank. Rule 2 do not EVER touch the water. Rule 3- do NOT get excited about anything because then the canoe will tip over. I was so nervous that I would break a rule and end up being eaten by a gator that I barely moved my body besides paddling. But the scenery was so gorgeous that I relaxed (but not too much) and had a great time. Jess has the guide's eye so she was on the lookout for gators. We saw 10 of them and we even saw one swimming across the river. Apparently the Tarzan film from the 1930's was filmed around Ocala and they released all the monkeys into the forest so we were on the lookout for monkeys but didn't see any. We did see many a turtle though.My favorite part of the trip happened when we were paddling up to Silver Springs and this old man was kayaking the other way and said "Can I tell you ladies something? You're sitting in your canoe backwards. You'd have more legroom to paddle if you switched around". Jess said in the kindest bitchiest voice possible "We most certainly are not but thank you". I laughed so hard I almost tipped the canoe over. Canoeing by the springs was so surreal because it was so crystal clear that I felt like I was paddling in an aquarium. I could see down 30 feet through the water. There's even a statue that was dropped into the bottom of the spring for a movie and was left there. Because all the rock is limestone it gives the water an amazing color as you can see below.
After working up an appetite paddling we went to the famous Sonny's BBQ for lunch. It was AMAZING! One of the best meals I ever had. Of course I started out with a fritter (corn this time). I think what made the BBQ sandwich so good was the fact that it was served on garlic bread. Plus, we had unlimited sweet tea. Delicious! That night our mission was to find John Travolta's home. I guess he loves Ocala and has a mansion there with enough room to land his 747. Our directions weren't very good so I'm not sure if we saw the right house. However, when we were leaving we saw a Denali with insane rims and tinted windows so we assumed it was John heading home. After that we went to a bar called BFE. It supposedly stands for "beer, food, entertainment" but it has a pyramid in its logo and I thought that was one of the cleverest names for a bar I've ever heard. If you don't know that particular colloquialism stands for then I suggest you Google BFE ;)

Gulf Coast Beaches

We left Orlando to go sun ourselves on the Gulf Coast. Jess's dad told her about Caladesi Island: a beautiful beach that you can only access by boat. Also voted one of America's Best Beaches by Dr. Beach (whoever that is). I had never entered a park before by boat only to be welcomed by a sign in the water. It was amazing! The water was 85 degrees and crystal clear. Luckily, Jess had prepped me beforehand with a beach safety talk so I didn't run and dive headfirst into the water. Instead, I calmly approached and shuffled my feet in up to my waist (because to be in the ocean above your waist=death apparently). It was an awesome beach! I finally figured out how to float. I think the saltwater had something to do with that. We combed the beach to look for shells. Jess found a beautiful shell but it still had live things inside it so we threw it back. We also found a live clam. There were tons of shells to choose from. I spent some more time splashing around in the ocean before we headed back to land.Our next stop was Clearwater, FL. We stopped for dinner and I got fried gator bites. I thought they tasted fine because I had nothing to compare it to but Jess was offended at how crappy it was. She wrote a scathing review on the comment card which I'm pretty sure made someone cry. We strolled along the boardwalk and then hung out on the pier. Apparently every evening there is a sunset festival and vendors and street performers come out to hock their wares. I couldn't resist being so close to that beautiful water again so I headed down to the beach to splash around some more. We ended up having a photo shoot because Jess can't capture motion. I had to jump about 20 times before she got a half decent shot. She blames my poor vertical but it's hard jumping on sand. I then tried cartwheeling and she did get a decent shot of that eventually. One weird thing I noticed about the beaches was that the sand sticks to your skin. Typically, sand just brushes off but this sand had tiny shell fragments and it clung to your skin even when trying to rinse off. I'm pretty sure I'm still brushing sand off me. Clouds ended up rolling in so we didn't get to see a great sunset but it was still really awesome to end a day at the beach.

SeaWorld

Day two introduced me to SeaWorld. Jess's sister has a connection at SeaWorld so we got in free which was amazing because otherwise it costs $80 per person. We got there early in the morning and did all the roller coasters first thing. We never waited more than 5 minutes which apparently was bizarre to Jess. She told me it usually takes a couple hours of waiting in line before you get on. I can't imagine paying $80 and then spending the whole day waiting in line. Yeah for free passes on a weekday!!
The first coaster we did was the Manta. It's brand new and you lay parallel to the ground. I have always been nervous about roller coasters but figured I'm only there once so I better take advantage. It was amazing. Maybe it was the different angle but I thought it was a really cool coaster and I'm glad I did it. Next we went on the Kraken. I didn't really get to see the whole setup before I got in line so I didn't know what to expect. It was a bit more intense than the Manta with more unsuspecting dips and turns but it was still pretty cool. We were in the front which made it even better. Then we did the log ride. I knew what to expect there...or at least I thought I did. After we did the first dive we got pulled up again and thrown down a dark tunnel where we went down another plume. One interesting feature of the log plume is that those who are too scared to go on the ride can watch their friends come out of the first drop and can pay a quarter to shoot a water cannon at you, soaking you even more. Not cool! We stopped by all the exhibits and saw sharks, dolphins, turtles, flamingos, penguins, polar bears, and manatees among others. A really cool exhibit was the sting ray lagoon. You can just reach over and touch a bunch of them as they come swimming by. As soon as I put my hand in the water one of them freaked out and splashed everyone and took off for the other side of the tank. I don't know what I did. As cool as the stingrays were, I loved petting the dolphins even more, despite having to pay $7. I don't know how to describe what they felt like but it was amazing to get so close to such a cool animal. We also got to see the real "killer" whale, Tilly. It was huge! It was creepy looking at an animal that had killed someone recently. I also got to finally see a manatee. Quick story: In elementary school our class adopted manatees. At that age I had no idea what a manatee was. I just knew I paid money and never received anything in return so I was pissed. I'm glad to see my return on investment finally. They are so precious! They are massive but have the cutest mushy face that just looks so benevolent. For lunch we dined in the Shark's Underwater Grill. It's dark and all the tables face a massive shark tank and they swim around while you dine on their fellow seamates. I had the weirdest salad of my life. It was delicious but there was some assembly required which I had never seen before in a salad. We also saw a couple shows. Clyde and Seymour was a cute sea lion show. They brought out a walrus at the end. That thing was massive! I don't know how they survive in the wild. They're just blobs of fat. We also saw the killer whale show. Jess was disappointed because the trainers don't get in the water anymore since one killed a trainer. It was still cool to see them up close. My favorite show by far was Blue Horizons. The dolphins were amazing. They were so well trained. They were just a sideshow to the circus acts spinning around them. People were diving off platforms, spinning from cables, parrots were flying around. Then a girl rode on a dolphins back and got pulled into the sky by cables to soar around. It was beautiful! I seriously almost cried it was so inspiring.
I had a great time at SeaWorld and was amazed at some of the things I got to see (and touch!). It definitely doesn't compare to MarineLand in Toronto.

Destination: Florida

I just got back from an amazing trip to Florida but I'm going to break down the blogs into day by day accounts because so many awesome things happened. Since most of what I did involves water I didn't take many pictures. Jess had wisely invested in an underwater camera so I will refer you all to her blog because it has much better pictures, videos and writing. http://www.adventureswithjessica.blogspot.com/

I got an amazing deal on a direct flight to Orlando and my flight even landed early. Now if only my head stopped feeling like it was going to explode on the descent, I would be a totally satisfied consumer. As soon as I walked out on the gateway I slammed into the insane heat and humidity. I had no time to adjust however as Jess whisked me off to Universal Orlando first thing. I was upset because Harry Potter world opens June 18th (so close!). Luckily, I did get to see the turrets of Hogwarts which looked amazing! All the more reason to come back in the future! We went to the City Walk which is the free part. There were tons of cool shops and restaurants and the famous spinning globe and Universal arch. Everything there is just like you see in the movies. Jess wanted to convert me to a total Coastie so she took me to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville. I had conch (pronounced "conk") fritters. They were amazing! I am convinced that anything in fritter form is delicious. Luckily, Jess's sister and brother-in-law live in Orlando so we didn't have far to go to crash for the night. What a great way to kick off my Florida week!