#1: Glass-bottom Boat Ride at the Springs

With much anticipation Thursday night, The Hub pulled the first white paper for our first date on this new adventure. The verdict was..................................

taking a glass-bottom boat ride at the Springs!

We are so lucky to live in Florida, close to so many amazing outdoor activites and parks. One of the reasons we started this project was to experience some of them! Very close to our home is Wakulla Springs, a state park where you can swim, take boat rides, hike, explore a lodge - pretty amazing place! Though we had taken a boat tour there before, we had never experienced their famous glass-bottom boat. So - we headed out Friday morning to do just that!

If you live or are visiting Wakulla or Leon County and have some time to tour around - Wakulla Springs is a must-visit. It is BEAUTIFUL! Just the drive in through the woods is gorgeous, very old Florida. When we got there, we headed straight to the docks to buy tickets for the boat tour... only to find this sign waiting for us:

No glass bottom boat tours because the water was too cloudy! We have had some major storms in the area recently, so the water was too dark to see anything through the glass. But NO FEAR - this project is about being together, not just accomplishing tasks - so we bought tickets for the regular boat tour and spent the hour of wait time bumming around and having fun together. We:

Enjoyed a highly nutritious meal at the snack bar, complete with very interesting people-watching:

Visited Giant Old Joe, the stuffed alligator (who was tragically and mysteriously murdered in the 1960s - it's a cold case!)

Flattened a penny to remember our travels:

Waded in the (FREEZING) water... while holding hands. It was very sweet!

And then sat down to share some ice cream and play checkers. Until we realized that neither of us knew how to play checkers. Seriously, we are a cerebral pair.

Then it was BOAT TIME! The boat tour lasts about 45 minutes and it is FULL of wildlife sightings. We spotted five manatees, at least a dozen gators, herds of turtles (do turtles travel in herds? schools? I don't know), a ton of birds (including a snake bird that swam underwater alongside our boat for half the ride), and a funny little kid who sat behind us and giggled every time the tour guide said "river chicken". We had a blast!

What a first date! We had so much fun spending time together that didn't include a television set or a telephone. Looking forward to many more dates to come!

xoxo,
Meghan