Shells, surf, dolphins and the Fountain of Youth

When you're in Florida visiting everyone gives you ideas of where to go to see stuff. Any stuff. Beach stuff, shopping stuff, attraction stuff; you know, stuff.
Sometimes you find the neatest stuff just touring around and not thinking you'll run into anything.

Yesterday (Saturday) being cloudy and cooler we decided it was a road trip with no real destination time. Driving up the Tamiami Trail (Route 41) The Man spotted a sign that said "Mineral Springs".
 No fan fare, no flashing lights, no hoopla; just a sign. So I pulled off and drove where the sign directed me. The road wasn't in the best neighbourhood possible but it was fine as we were only passing through.
A lovely welcome area greeted us and we were at one of the U.S's heritage sites. The Fountain of Youth, reportedly the one sought and located by Ponce De Leon. This natural spring, 240 feet deep, provides 9 million gallons of water each day to the nearby creek eventually getting to the Gulf. The water is a constant 87 F.
Wild life is in and around the pool and this oasis is simply stunning!

 Wild life enjoying the spring. These ramps are how you enter the spring.

Centre of Spring marked off. This is the deepest part, and warmest. You can see a couple of people's heads bobbing in the water off to the left. Cool day and windy so very few people enjoying it. See the rows of chairs around the spring. Neat!

We enjoyed a lovely lunch in the cafe there and totally enjoyed the view. I know I am coming back here for sure! There are spa treatments as well and a day pass is only $20! So neat! So hidden away. Wow!

One of the places to visit while here is Boca Grande. This is a spit of land that ends in a lighthouse and is the entrance to most of the inland canals that are around this area. The Gulf power meets the quiet canal water and the wild life (dolphins!!!) and shells are great.
The wind had been coming from the northwest for a couple of days and the waves were awesome. Warnings of rip tides abounded but we decided we could let the wave crash over our legs at least. Around the point of land where the two waters meet there were 5 dolphins feeding on the fish there. No good pictures of course but we saw them diving back and forth through the waves. Wow, what a sight! I had a smile on my face for the rest of the day!

Just getting our feet wet at Boca Grande

A few friends who stuck around us during our visit.

This is what the beach is...just shells!

Note the wet t-shirt of The Man as he enjoys a little more of the surf!

Us and the waves at Boca Grande!

Boca Grande is an old establishment. There are very old homes, very old trees and that's where I'll end it on the old part. The major form of transportation is the golf cart. Tripped out, painted every colour of the rainbow, multi-seated golf carts. The buzz around like little bees and you have to be careful when driving, especially the beloved beast of Equinox around them. They may get squished! Fun though!

One street, aptly named Banyan Street, is really a sight to behold.
This tree lined street was actually dark because the trees were so tall and so big.

Really, this was something. We had fun checking all the trees and vines out. Very neat.

When driving around Florida you're apt to see just about anything. The laws on speeding are strict, the school zone speeds are policed just about every day but motorcyclists don't need helmets and we saw this (below) and a sheriff drove right past it! (Note left brake light is the only one barely working.)

We dubbed it the dock truck because the flat bed looks like a dock, note there is no back of the cab and what you can't see is the front visor being held up by clothes pegs. Really something!

Another place we were told would be nice to visit is Siesta Key, near Sarasota. With nothing more on our agenda (always a floating document) we headed there. Not only is Sarasota very large in space and population it also has the Van Wezel Performing Arts Centre where it seems just about everyone goes to play there. Kenny Rogers, Whoopie Goldberg, Tim Conway, operas, ballets, circus', you name it they're either booked to come there or have been. I think that's on our agenda for sure.
Siesta Key is a blip of land out on the Gulf that has squeaky sand. Really, it squeaks when you walk on it!
This picture looks like it's snow on the ground. Nope. It's pure white, fine sand. And it squeaks!

Snow white beaches of Siesta Key.

We saw a younger age demographic at Siesta Key and there were lots of oyster bars and crab shacks there. Not a long strip of places but enough to be busy on a cool day. We may come back here but it's lower on the list of places. The beach didn't have many shells and but the swimming must be awesome. Reminded me a lot of Sauble Beach. Long beach, a long walk to get there and long walk in the water.

So, I think that's all my brain remembers right now. The sun is out, it's noon on Sunday, and it's time to settle into my book for a bit.

Ahhh yes, Florida in January...nice.

Cheers all!