Silver Springs- The Forgotten Florida Attraction

As our time in Tampa is beginning to draw to a close, I am working on visiting more places on our "bucket list" of places I can get to in a few hours from Tampa.  Silver Springs was one of those places.

It was easy to imagine Silver Springs in its prime.  Reminders of years past when this was once a bustling Florida attractions surround this beautiful park.

Today, it was calm and quiet with very few people on property.

The kids and I went on a glass bottom boat tour.  This was their first time on a boat like this, and my first time since I was a kid.  For some reason, I always remember glass bottom boats as being dull with a scratchy glass area that prevented you from seeing much.

I think this is how Hannah will remind this ride, despite the fact that it was quite informative with crystal clear glass and waters.

Our captain took us over several springs where we saw bluegill, bar, bass, turtles, and lots of grassy areas.  Nathan and Nicole seemed quite intrigued.

We then spent some time touring the grounds.

We found a beautiful blue tailed skink.

And the kids were excited about the Osceola monument (he is even stabbing the treaty here).

There was a cute little display area with stuffed animals, and animal pelts

Nicole is touching a beaver pelt.  It was really thick and heavy

Hannah was sad because this poor animal had to die

 Hannah said this picture was for Papa....She has antlers on her head.

However the highlight of the day was something I didn't even really intend on doing.

We spent the afternoon at Wild Waters, the water park that was on the Silver Springs property.

Nathan was pretty nervous about the wave pool

Apparently, this water park was under construction earlier this summer, so the rates were greatly reduced.  They never changed the rates once construction ended, so we only spent $25 for an afternoon of great fun.

The best part was....all three kids were big enough to go down most of the slides.

With much excitement, we spent all afternoon running up stairs, and sliding down slides.

I even got in on the slide action...which was So Fun!

The longest we had to wait for any slide was two people.  No one was there, which meant we could pack a lot of fun into just a few hours.

One thing I love about opportunities like this is that it creates a fairly safe environment to overcome fears.  Nicole was so afraid to go down the slides with tubes because some of them were tunnels.

However, after one time, I couldn't get her to stop:)

Antics while waiting for his sisters

Hannah struggled with similar anxiety.  (Dad, this was the kind of tube ride that dumps you into a bowl that you swirl around in...it was fun!)

However, she quickly realized the fun outweighed the fear and tackled the tube rides several times.

This was Hannah's face after her first tube ride

And then her face after her second tube ride.

Nathan could barely swim by the end of the day, he was so exhausted.

That boy ran and giggled all day long.  He had a blast!

The one big thing that was missing was daddy.  I was so sad that Jeremy couldn't be there.  He would have had a blast on those slides with the kids!

However, now we know this is an option.  All three are over 42 inches, and all three can swim.

I LOVE that I got this shot!  It was purely by coincidence.....uh, I mean, completely on purpose!

Silver Springs is a forgotten little Florida attraction, to bad....it has a lot left to offer.

Another Week in Review.

OK, so these are our pictures from the past week....well, I think it's been more like 10 days...

Science Experiment about lung capacity.  I think Nicole's face is turning red.

 These two are the sweetest siblings!  Waiting nicely for their turn.

OK, Hannah's turn now to blow through her straw.  How much water can she push out?

This is Nathan, gathering up a big breathe, ready to blow super hard!  Isn't he cute?

One of our drawing pieces for this week.  Be impressed....be very impressed.  Why yes, that IS my drawing of the Statue of Liberty, thank you very much!

 Oh, this isn't about me?  Well, fine....here are Nicole and Hannah's as well.  Lady Liberty looks a little ticked off in these drawings.  I love how Hannah included the buildings of NYC (including her attempt at the Empire State Building)

 I LOVE this map of the USA that Hannah drew.  She wasn't looking at anything, actually she drew it when she was suppose to be doing something else.  But, I didn't get mad.  This is why we trace!

Earlier this week, we learned about Pennsylvania through our Road Trip USA guide we are using.  So, of course, we needed to celebrate this great state!

We made peanut butter kiss cookies, with Hershey's kisses, since the largest chocolate factory in the US is in Pennsylvania.

We also tried to make a Philly Cheese Steak.  I never made nor eaten a sandwhich like this before.  It was our dinner one night, and quite good by the way.  The kids are asking me to make it again.

 We topped off the week by going to a concert for one of my favorite muscians.  I first heard Andrew Peterson play when I was in college.  His voice has a unique sound....and it's exactly the same live as it is on his albums.  You've got to respect that!  He is a great storyteller, which made the songs come to life.

 The kids hung in there for a long, late, and maybe not exciting to them concert.  This is what Hannah looked like by the end of the night!

 Just kidding, she's still our little cutie, with her ornery little brother.

 Wait, now it looks like a strange two headed monster!

 Nevermind, it's just a goofy four year old!

 Nicole insisted upon standing in line aferward for a photo with Andrew Peterson.  (Why is my hair so yellow?  Mom.....I think I need to go back to dark again for a while...)

 He was playing around with Nathan and pretending to "flick a booger"  at him.  I decided to pretend along.  This is a classical "Michele" picture.  I'm doing something stupid while everyone else is smiling....so embarrassing.

 OK, this might be the best thing from the week!  Nathan wrote me a card.  I says, " i luv u momee".  It's perfect!  I love it!

 Finally, we were learning about the evolution of the American Flag, from the first "Old Glory" , possibly designed and sewed by Betsy Ross, to our current flag.  It inspired this mess of red, white, and blue.

St. Pete

Sometime last week we decided to visit a sweet friend who was at All Children's Hospital in St. Pete.  We don't make it down that way very often, the kids and I tried to make a day of it.  After our visit, we decided to eat lunch at The Hanger, a restaurant located in a small private airport just off the Bay.

Just as we walked onto the patio, a small, private jet aircraft took off.  It was super loud and really exciting to watch.

 Then we mostly saw little prop. planes an even a helicopter.

 The kids' menus were printed on a little cardboard airplane.  It was really cute.

 This is one of my favorite lunches with the kids.  There was free entertainment, provided by the aircraft, and the food was actually really good.  It was really relaxing.

 We explored the inside a little bit, and had fun with this dolphin, painted to look like an old fighter plane

 On our way out of town, we drove past the pier area and saw several hundred sail boats docked, so we decided to check out.  It was a beautiful marina, with a little play ground too.

 Our last stop was Weedon Island.  We visited this great Pinellas County Park last year, but thought we'd hit it up one more time.  It has beautiful board walks, nature trails, and a really nice indoor culture and history center.

 The kids were given a scavenger hunt to help engage them in the displays.  Nathan worked on his for 30 seconds, Hannah lasted a painful 10 minutes....but Nicole made it the whole way through.

 The displays in the center are really beautiful.  Nathan is sitting under their mangrove tree display.  It gives you a sense of what it is like to sit under a mangrove island.

 Nicole has fun showing Nathan around the center and trying to entertain him.  He has two really great center.

 They were checking out the shell mound replicate.  It was fun teaching them some of my archaeology tools and ideas I learned while in college.

 The exhibits have a wide variety of interactive tools.  This one showed the benefit of fires in the pine forests of our area.

 The children are working on their puzzle solving skills while trying to re piece a pot from shards that had been excavated.  This was a favorite activity.

 I love all the interesting little places that you find, sometimes by asking questions, sometimes by exploring, and sometime by referral.  This was a really fun day for us.