March 30, 2019
When I worked at ImageWorks I had the pleasure of working with many different people and business in Orange City. One of my favorite people to work with was Darrel, a park ranger at Blue Spring. While Darrel was in the shop one day he told me about an event the park was having that I never heard of before. You go to the park before closing and then you get to stay until it’s dark and out come fireflies, lighting up the night. I was so excited and as luck would have it, there were still a few nights left of that event.
I called up Karen to see if she wanted to go with me. Out of all the people I knew, she was the one I thought would enjoy it the most and she seemed just as excited as I was. We decided to go on the last night. We packed up a picnic and headed out to the park. While we were enjoying our food, Darrel was heading to give a talk and he let us know where we needed to be and when. After we ate we went to the Thursby house to listen to a very informative talk about fireflies. First, fireflies are not flies; they are beetles. They live most of their lives underground and if I remember correctly, they light up to attract a mate. I also remember Darrel saying that they were living out their last days and we were lucky enough to witness them before their lights went out. I looked past the fact that we were actually watching them mate.
We noticed that it was getting dark and we also noticed the large amount of people that were gathering so we got a head start in order to see a private light show. I couldn’t believe my eyes, there were twinkles everywhere. It was so magical. I felt like I was in a fairy forest. I tried to capture the moment in photographs but they just didn’t come out. I wanted to share the magic with everyone. I felt like staying there all night but soon the crowd caught up and the magic faded a bit. It’s was okay though because you only get an hour after the park closes. We would have been escorted out. You were not allowed to touch them but they did not have a problem running into me. I just giggled and watched the light show until we decided it was best to leave and beat the crowd for the exit. I never really considered camping at Blue Spring because it is so close to where I live but now I am seriously thinking about staying one night when the park turns into a fairy forest!