My sister, Lisa, called a few weeks ago and wanted to plan a girl’s day trip to Weeki Wachee Springs State Park.
She’d been there before and thought the mermaids were one of the coolest things she’d ever seen. So cool, apparently, that driving 219 miles and picking me up on the way (a one-way trip of nearly 4 hours for her) was worth it. There were other benefits to the day trip…we each asked a friend so we had the company of fun, intelligent women, and then she and her friend would stay overnight with me so we could spend even more time together. Was I in? You bet!
The trip was on a gorgeous Florida fall day, slightly overcast with temps in the low 80s. I quickly got over the difficulty of having had to set an alarm for 6:15 (in the morning!) to be able to meet Lisa at an I-75 exit at 7:30. But Lisa and her adventures are worth it, so Randy dropped off me and Michele Rose (my designer friend with an excellent website found here) at a 7-11 where Lisa picked us up. We had lots to yak about on the way up so the drive flew by and we arrived at Weeki Watchee in plenty of time for the first mermaid show at 11 a.m.
That mermaid show was fun. We had great seats, right in front of the huge window that separates the dry audience from the wet performers. The show was a short version of Hans Christian Anderson’s Little Mermaid story. Judging from the children in the audience, at age 6 or 8 it was awfully exciting, but at age 68 it was only just interesting and entertaining. What I found completely fascinating though, was pondering the logistics and ability to put on a mermaid show of that caliber. Of course, the girls are beautiful, as mermaids should be, but the skill and talent required to maneuver underwater, swim, be still and stay in one place perfectly suspended in water, manage the ability to keep breathing (there are air hoses available to the performers), open your eyes and look at the audience, and lip sync (underwater) to the dialogue, is pretty impressive. So too is the theater, built like a giant aquarium in front of a underground spring, with a cave-like natural backdrop.
Apparently it takes about a year of training to become a mermaid. And the mermaids look like they love their lot in life, both in and out of the water. I wonder if they get to keep those cool monofin costume thingies when they “retire.” The woman in the gift shop told us they sell A LOT of them at about $100 a pop. I thought that was expensive, but I suppose it depends on how much you (or your kids) actually want or need mermaid gear. The shopkeeper also told us of a man who once came in, sat down on the floor in the gift shop and tried on a monofin right there in front of everybody. She seemed to like to talk more than she liked stocking keychains. Being the only customers in the shop, we didn’t ask for additional details, fearing she had many unique and interesting stories to tell and we’d miss the beginning of the mermaid show.
After the mermaids finished we walked right over to the Ranger Presentation where Ranger Ally told us the difference between turtles and tortoises, and how to tell venomous from nonvenomous snakes. Having a snake wrapped around her didn’t seem to bother her as much as it bothered me. When Ranger Ally finished, Lisa jumped up and rushed us right to the river cruise where we were the last 4 passengers on a boat that left within minutes of our arrival. Lisa’s timing always seems to be perfect, but that’s because she’s super-organized, a master planner, and is never (on her own) late for anything. As a result, we were done with all the attractions by about 12:30. We had time to have a nice lunch in town, and stop to explore Ikea in Tampa on the way home.
Weeki Watchee is a natural spring park with crystal clear water at a year-round temperature of 72°. If you’re from up north, that is plenty warm enough, but when you live in Florida, it’s kinda chilly. It’s a beautiful, well-kept park with in-water play activities (water slides and a lazy river). Everything except swimming in the “bay” was closed for the season. Some day I’d like to go back to spend the day in the water there. There are also kayak and paddleboard rentals, still open. Being Halloween weekend, it was fun, on the boat cruise, to see witches and pirates on stand-up paddleboards making their way up and down the Weeki Watchee River. There was a trunk or treat event scheduled at the park for 2 that afternoon so there were few people there in the morning which was why we were able to see all the attractions and activities without any wait time. All the activities in the park are included in the park admission price of $13 per adult.
It was a great day, good to be in an area of Florida without hurricane damage cluttering up the landscape everywhere, and to laugh and just be around some really cool women.
Can’t wait to do it again! Lisa, what’s our next adventure?
P.S. In case you know anyone interested in becoming a professional mermaid, here’s a link to mermaid school. And in case you’re even more interested in everything mermaiding, there’s a whole lot of fascinating information about it as a real job on the internet. Ziprecruiter.com even has a resume category! Google it. And practice holding your breath. Because apparently real, live mermaids can do that for up to 4 minutes at a time.
Leave a Reply