Homosassa Springs

This was our change to see manatees without having to take a boat ride! We would not be held hostage for hours in the bright hot sun! And... And... (I am shaking with excitement), there is an underwater viewing chamber!

So with that we stopped at the Homosassa River State Park, just after 11am. We expected to walk in, plop down our $13 each, march into the viewing room, see the manatees, ooh and aah, and be back on the road in 15 minutes. Plenty of time before lunch.

The first warning, which we ignored in our rush to the bathrooms, was the little old lady who directed us to the boat that would take us to the park. In our brain addled rush to the bathrooms, I figured that the viewing room must not be in the visitor center located right on the main road, but perhaps just a few feet out into the marsh. So after visiting the little boy and girl rooms, we hopped into the boat.

There in the boat, waiting for the 11:30 departure, I noticed that there was no awning on the boat. mmmm... maybe I better run back and get my hat. But there wasn't enough time, so coverless, I faced the boat trip, expecting the hot Florida sun to beat down on my newly shorn head (I got a haircut last week, number 1 cut, which to me is the 1/16 inch attachment, but for this barber it meant no attachment).

The ride out to the visitor center was nice. Mostly in the shade of lots of trees. The boat man, a nice volunteer, gave us a history of the park and the animals we might see. I was expecting a wild animal experience, but this state park use to be a private attraction until 20 years ago. The previous owners had imported some animals, including a hippo (which is now the oldest hippo in the world). Carrying on the tradition, the state now releases rescued animals into the park, birds, bears, bobcats, etc. And there was something about the feeding of the hippo at 12:30, and the feeding of the manatees at 1:30. At this point it was not sounding very wild, but rather a visit to Disney Land.

At the end of the nice boat ride, we exited, crossed a road, saw plenty of parking, and exclaimed: "what! we could have driven here! Why didn't anyone tell us that!"

We entered the visitor center, handed over our $26, and the very nice lady told us the feeding of the manatees was at 1:30. Heather not so politely asked where we could see the darn manatees, but the lady, who stopped being so nice, repeated in her best school marm voice, "the feeding of the manatees is at 1:30."

They stamped the back of our hands with something in the shape of a chicken, though if I turned my head sideways and held my hand at an awkward angle, someone might thought it was the shape of a manatee, but only if they had never seen a chicken before.

One of the other visitors came to the rescue of the schoolmarm and told us the manatees could be seen anytime. So, with our spirits rubbed raw but not broken, we went into the park.

We walked over to the viewing platform... to be continuedRead more