Mermaids and Manatees at Weeki Wachee🧜

We made it to Florida! The last official state on our adventure. We hoped to have more than two weeks to explore the state but all good things must come to an end! First stop is a quick but special one. We stayed at Mary's Fish camp in Gulfport which was minutes from the Mermaids at Weeki Wachee State Park. Mary's fish camp was a special place in itself. It's a picturesque fishing camp with camps, fishing structures and lots of cool fish and birds. We held off exploring the campground as we had mermaids and manatees first on the itinerary. We only had one day here so we had to make it count. We started at the park which was just recently adorning it's Christmas decor. It was easy to see that the mermaids were the main attraction here and have been since the 1950's. After a few photo ops with the mermaid statues we headed on a short river cruise.. It was a great tour that we had all to ourselves as it was pretty chilly (for Florida) and the park was basically empty. We cruised over the eel grass and teal blue water and we were delighted to see Manatees within the first two minutes. After the tour we walked up to the bay to watch the Manatees swim slowly around and come up for air. We checked out the ranger experience and got to see turtles, a snake and a juvenile alligator. At the end of the show we were able to pet them! Then it was on to the main attraction... Mermaids! We were delighted to watch the mermaids tell their story, dance and swim around right before our eyes! They even shed their tales to do an Elvis number who was a memorable visitor to the park many years ago!
Once back at the fish camp Weston got out his rod in attempt to catch some fish. He didn't have much success but we spotted a HUGE turtle whom William named Godzilla, lots of fish, crabs and a Roseate Spoonbill in the trees! We hope to have a longer visit someday to explore more of the springs in the area.Read more