Tuesday we pulled my cousin Steven out of school and brought him along with us to Wakulla Springs State Park. The last time I was there I was probably 9, and since then their famous glass bottom boats have been put out of commission. Apparently due to extra nitrogen, the pristine, crystal clear spring water is now...greenish. Like any other normal river (though it is relatively clear at parts). That was rather disappointing, I must say. But we still went for a river boat tour, even though it didn't have a glass bottom. Our tour guide was very friendly, and had lots of information to share about the many birds, fish, turtles, alligators and plant life that we saw. Three things were especially captivating:
1) The fall colors. You still have deciduous trees in northern FL, so despite the heat, many of the trees have gold and orange hues to them, while there is still lots of green. Set that all against a blue sky, with the sparkling river below...magnifique.
2) This should probably be categorized above, but I'm giving it it's own: the cypress tress. They grew on the banks and right in in the middle of the river. Spanish moss hung like veils over the relatively bare branches. It looked absolutely primordial, or like something from Lord of the Rings. I kept pretending I was with Sam and Frodo paddling out of Lothlorien. Except there was a really loud boat motor accompanying us.... Something funny is that tons of vultures migrate to Wukulla Springs this time of year, and up to ten of them would sit on the topmost branches of the cypress trees. Mom and I looked at each other at the same time and said, "What do you wanna do?" "I dunno, what do you wanna do?"
3) The most amazing thing ever were the manatees. We saw the first one from several hundred feet away, just a large shadow with a blue buoy attached to it since the park tracks where some of them go (other than that, the manatees are completely wild, as are all the animals. They aren't sheltered, per say, or gated in; just protected from hunters/boats and allowed to migrate in and out as nature dictates). When we saw it, the tour guide proceeded to tell us all about these gentle giants, who are extremely friendly and will often come very near people. However, she said, we humans are not to take advantage of this fact. We should let them be, not feed them, pet them, get to close to them, etc. When they get to accustomed to humans, it's dangerous because then they get too near boats and end up with scarring from running into propellers. Upon hearing that, I figured it was good advice.
*insert hypocritical laugh here*
As the tour came to an end, we ended up in the spring bowl where about 11 other manatees were, along with a mama and her baby. Still, we couldn't get too close but I thought it was amazing. They mostly looked like big shadows, but occasionally they came up for air and blew water out their noses. Then the tour ended, we docked, and ate lunch. Mom had packed sandwiches, and made so many she left the ham out of mine. I had a single slice of cheese between two slices of bread. Thanks to the charity of my siblings, I got some ham. After that little confusion we got changed into swimsuits. I swam out to one of the floating docks, and did cannon balls off it with the rest of the kids. Steven tried catching mullet with his bare hands; I tried scaring the mullet away. I like to keep my toes, thank you (okay fine, mullet can't do anything but nip).
After a while I meandered over to the diving pier. The top deck is 25 feet above the water, and from up there you can get a really good view of the surrounding area, and of the deepness of the water. I was especially excited to get a better view of those manatees. Occasionally, they would cautiously swim right into the roped off swimming area. I stood up there for a while, contemplating a trajectory of how to jump...wondering if I really wanted to. There was a garfish just 15 feet from where I would land, and those things can bite your toes off. Presently, two elderly couples came over. The two women stayed on the bottom deck, but the men came up top with their cameras and after a few seconds started convincing me that I should jump and they would take pictures (that's putting it nicely. Really it was like "Aw, your gonna let a little garfish scare you out?). Whatever they said though, that was all the encouragement I needed. Besides, an audience always makes things more fun. I threw out any ideas of proper jumping form, and with a running leap flew off the deck.
I fell for a shockingly long time before hitting the water.
"Hit" is the appropriate verb too, because it actually hurt to enter the water. From doing it a couple times, I had bruises on my legs the next day. Next time, I'll apply the "How To Jump from a Bridge into a Body of Water without Dying" chapter of the extreme case scenario handbook.
My mom, Isaac, and Maryah were out on a another floating dock, and the manatees were getting very close to them so I decided to go out and join them. I was glad I did, because one extroverted manatee swam right up to the dock, and we got to pet it. Can the rules, I even shook its flipper. What was funny, is that right at that moment another boat tour was going past a couple hundred feet away and we could hear the guide giving her audience the same spiel she'd given concerning the manatees. And here we were, petting one, while the people in the boat marveled at being 50 ft from them...as I had naively marveled, of course. Who knew breaking the rules could be so much fun.
Anyhow, Sanna, Misha, and Steven picked up on what was going on out at the dock with us and the manatee. Misha and Steven started swimming toward us to come see, but Sanna can't swim so she started sobbing (spoiled baby reaction? Perhaps. But hey, I would cry too if all my siblings were petting a manatee and my own inadequacies kept me from doing it too). So I swam back to shore, put her on my back, and started making my way to the dock. For 3/4 of the trip I could walk, but then land gave way and I had to start swimming with a 45 lb child on my back. The situation was rather ludicrous because there I was, blowing water out of my mouth, gasping for air, trying to stay afloat--and laughing, because I was failing to keep myself up in order to keep Sanna up. Then mom started laughing too, because the looks on Sanna and my faces were such opposites. According to mom, Sanna was petrified in fear, eyes wide, though completely out of the water, and I was there half drowning and not able to float from laughing so much. But in the end, we both made it to the dock and Sanna got to see the manatees up close.
The end.
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