Manatee Springs and Crystal River, Florida

Our Florida Christmas in the Mothership was so wonderful and free of busyness and the normal holiday hustle and bustle we even got to take a mini-trip to Manatee Springs and Crystal River, just a few days before Christmas. No stress!

We hadn't really done our homework, just decided to hit the road in search of manatees, and drove to Manatee Springs State Park. We paid the state park overnight admission, found our campsite, and decided... to make this a day trip. The park was pretty enough, but trying to work through our road trips requires at least cell coverage, if not internet access. There was a pay phone, but outgoing 1-800-calls were blocked. The sites were also small, on dirt road, and it was really buggy. I didn't use the bathroom facilities, but was told by family members they weren't all that impressive (read clean).

What was impressive though, was the spring - can you see the clear turquoise water in the third photo in the top collage? Three of our kids enjoyed a dip in the 72F waters. There was also a neat boardwalk through the woods to Suwannee River where we the manatees were hanging out. Other visitors told us the manatees will come near the dock in the morning and you can see a large group of them. We could see them underwater a little ways from us, and occasionally would see one come up to the surface to breathe.

On our way out of the park we discovered the Catfish Hotel Sink - a yucky looking round pond, covered in green goo (?) on the surface. Apparently an amazing spot for cave scuba diving! The park has underwater caves you could explore. The Captain and our teens might need to come back one day...

After a 2-3 hour visit to Manatee Springs we drove South to Crystal River area. We found a private campground Lake Rousseau RV Park, which turned out to be perfect for us for a two day stay. We got a good size pull-though waterfront site, everybody there was super friendly and the facilities were very clean. They even had a heated pool, which the kids loved. We spent one day {my birthday} of doing absolutely nothing (except laundry - which you have to do whenever there is a laundry machine when you are traveling with seven people in an RV). Bliss!



On our way back to Fort Desoto Campground where we stayed for Christmas we stopped at Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. This was a neat park, and worth a visit if you are in the area. There's an underwater observatory in the main spring you could see the manatees very close. We didn't - the manatees had been blocked from that area earlier (they had had to do a manatee rescue, if I remember correctly), but we enjoyed seeing hundreds, if not thousands of fish swim near the observatory. We did see manatees being fed (see middle of collage where the lettuce is floating), but it was hard to get good pictures of them.

The wildlife park had many native Florida animals, including alligators, pink flamingos, river otters etc. And Lu - the honorary hippopotamus who was left behind by previous owners - 6000 lbs of hippopotamus can be challenging to move, perhaps? We could have spent a lot more time at the park, there was quite a bit to see and do, but we enjoyed the time we had. We didn't get a whole lot of school done during Christmas, so it was bonus to have these trips as our homeschool field trips:)

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Joulu asuntoautossa oli niin rauhallinen, että perheemme jopa teki minireissun merilehmiä katsomaan jouluviikolla. Kahdessa eri puistossa piti käydä, että näimme näitä hitaita rentoja eläimiä läheltä, enkä silti saanut hyviä kuvia otettua. Tokassa puistossa oli kaikenlaisia floridalaisia elämiä, alligaattoreista pinkkeihin flamingoihin, sekä virtahepo Lu, edellisten omistajien jättämä jättiläinen.