Only in Florida – from mermaids to mangoes

Not knowing how long we’ll live in a place helps to get us focussed on visiting what’s local – although driving the length of Florida is similar to driving the length of Britain – so local now has a longer travel time. In another post I shared our glamping trips on the west coast, here I will cover some other unique places we have visited.

Starting with the state-funded mermaids of Weeki Wachee!

Weeki Wachee Springs State Park is a natural spring pool…with performing mermaids. The water is lovely and fresh with a couple of water slides, beach areas, tubes to float downstream and a riverboat cruise. There are wildlife shows and, of course, not to be missed the Mermaids. We watched a performance of The Little Mermaid, naturally! Kitsch and athletic in equal measure. The park is very popular and at weekends you have to get there really early. We arrived leisurely mid morning on our first day in the area and it was already at capacity by 10am. So the next day we got there before it opened and joined the queue. They do open the ticket office around 8.30 so you get your tickets and then queue again for the doors to open at 9am. You can sign up for a text alert which warns you when they are full – I still have this active on my phone because it amuses me! We had a good full day here, which was only cut sure when the regular late afternoon torrential downpour arrived.

Something else we had to see whilst in Florida – oranges. We chose to visit the Showcase of Citrus. There are some discount coupons on their website and at the time of our visit I found a Groupon offer. The fruit wasn’t in season to pick but that is possible at other times of the year. Instead we enjoyed a look around the farm shop, a freshly squeezed juice and the guided tour through the groves on a converted yellow school bus monster truck.

Another place we visited is at Rainbow Springs State Park. All sorts of activities are available there but we went for the tubing. There is a specific entrance for tubing at S.W. 180th Avenue Rd, Dunnellon, FL 34432. For $20 you hire a tube and a shuttle takes you upstream. You then gently float back down river with other tubers and boaters to where you parked. Since it is a spring the water stays the same temperature 22°C (72°F) all year round. As you enter the water there are signs about the local wildlife (alligators) which did scare our 8 year old even though these seem to be near water everywhere in Florida. We managed to coax her in and she did relax and even joined her brothers diving in off the tubes – and as we drifted the only wildlife brave enough to come anywhere near us were a couple of turtles.

My mum was coming from England for her first Miami visit and Hurricane Matthew was heading to east coast Florida, so we decided to head west for some slightly better weather. At short notice we found an Airbnb in Cape Coral and quickly researched some nearby activities. The winter estates of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison are just outside of Fort Myers and we thought this would keep us occupied for a couple of hours. It’s a lovely location, right on the water, and there was more to see than we expected – the houses and gardens with an audio tour for some of the history, a scavenger hunt for the children, the laboratory and the museum with interesting exhibits about the many inventions of Edison.

Back to south of Miami and the Fruit and Spice Park in the Redlands. You can take a walk yourself around the park or, at certain times throughout the day, there are guided tours, also they offer tours by tram. If you are a stranger to these parts, like me, you will see a variety of fruit trees which are completely new. Some of the fruit I had never heard of before others, like avocado, I of course knew but had never seen growing from the trees. Throughout the year there are several special themed events too – Summer fruit, Mango, Seafood, BBQ – with food vendors, some activities, live music, wildlife talks. Groupon often has offers for tickets to these festivals.