June 21, 2015
For Father’s day I told my dad I would like to spend the day any way he would like. He said he would love to go to the spring and spend the day but I would have to meet him early so we could get in the park. At the time, I was not much for playing in the outdoors and early to me was not the same as it is now. I started heading his way about 9 am, stopping to get us sandwiches for a picnic lunch along the way. By the time I reached him it was well after 10 am and we headed to Alexander springs in Ocala. My dad told me that we may not get in and I just kinda brushed his comment off to the side. I mean, who in the world wants to go to a spring on Father’s day? The answer was EVERYONE! We pulled up to the park and the line of cars to get in was unbelievable. After a short discussion we decided to try Juniper springs which was close by. That line was even longer. People didn’t even have their cars on, they were just sitting there, waiting for people to leave so they could get in. I apologized more than once to my dad for not realizing that the springs would be so popular and for my poor timing on the day. We drove around while he put his thinking cap on and we ended up at Silver Springs.
We drove right up to the entrance and got front row parking. It seems as if there is a spring that you just look at rather than swim in, you can get right in. I am not much of a swimmer these days so that worked for me. The park was so very pretty. We walked the paths all around the park and ended up at a stage where my dad shared stories of the many concerts he watched right where we were standing. We found a nice picnic table to sit at and enjoyed our sandwiches, laughing about the days events.
After lunch we took a famous glass bottom boat tour. I remembered seeing the commercials and hearing about these tours my whole life, it was really cool to actually be on one! Although the day did not go according to plan, I believe it went as it was supposed to. We had such a wonderful time at the park but the adventure getting there was the best part!
