Fourth of July weekend - Day 3 (final day)

This is our 3rd and final full day in Crystal River, FL.

Woke up and made breakfast again.  I should note - last year our propane in the bottles ran out in the middle of a camp stay.  Thankfully we always had the electric skillet so it wasn't an issue.  This year because our skillet was so old and not as "non stick" as it used to be - we bought a single burner for cooking.  It frees up a lot of space not having to move everything off the cook top every time we want to cook.  We can even cook outside if we wanted to.

Cale woke up and then decided to steal my spot and go right back to sleep!

Our plan was to drive an hour to go to Weeki Wachee state park.  Kennedie is locking the bikes back up.

WOOHOO got to Weeki Wachee just as it opened!

We started to turn into the parking lot and realized the line was ridiculous long!!  So we stopped into this CVS and tried to  come up with a new plan.  We asked the guy at the counter what his suggestion was and he said to go to Rogers Park which was just up to the road.  So we headed that way!

Rogers Park has a small swimming area that's roped off but mostly it is a lazy type river.  We found a place across the way that was renting Kayaks and things.  We walked over and noted we SHOULD have had a reservation.  Thankfully they had some stand up paddleboards that we all could rent. So off we went and stayed on the river for about an hour and a half.  We paddled upstream at first.

Tim's way more proficient at paddling so he got to places to stop quicker as I was in the back of the group with Cale.

She was happy should could finally get in the water!

Another sandbar break!

On our way farther up the stream Cale was tired from all his paddling, so he hitched a ride with dad.

I snapped this on our way to dinner but you can see how the river winds around.  There were a TON of houses right on the river.  Some of them were dilapidated and some were MANSIONS!!

We found a place called Zig Zag Scallop to eat lunch.  It was DELICIOUS!!  Hands down best scallops I have had in a LONG time.

Tim had shrimp taco's.  He said they were also delicious!

Rain looked like it was coming in so we decided to eat inside.

Glad we did because we got dumped on and it wasn't letting up!

Back in the trailer and Cale was helping get all the stuff that got wet in the rain dry, so we could put it away!  We went to see Toy Story 4 at the local movie theater.  Which is in a mall that is mostly closed down.  I think the theater is the only reason that place is still open on the level that it is.  After the movie we hung out in the camper until we left the next morning!  We loved the campground we were in - I'll post pictures of it in another post!

Fourth of July Weekend - Day 2

We had a blast on day 2!!!

 My turn to make breakfast!!  

 Back and Rainbow Springs for Canoeing, Kayaking and Paddleboarding!

  She was excited to paddleboard!  The last time she did it was in Washington last year, and she was a pro at it!

Rental prices weren't bad at all.  If you aren't out there for the full hour they only charge you in 15 minute increments.  I believe for the time we had them, we paid $40 or so.  They do offer a 10% military discount.

 They didn't have any single kayak's available so the three of us were in a canoe, and Kennedie got a paddleboard.

 She is awesome at paddleboarding!

 Before you could get into the water you had to get out of the headsprings area.  There is a sign in the water that says you are able to get out.  This is a little past that sign where the boys wanted to get out and "treasure hunt".

 The water is pretty deep and we didn't bring the noodles so we made Cale keep his lifejacket on because he would tire out easily from paddling to stay afloat.

 Cale thinks he is going to be a professional you tuber one day.  We got him a cheaper go-pro version from Amazon 2 years ago for his birthday, we just let him have at it in the water.

 Boys hitching a ride with Kennedie back to the canoe.

 Cale wanted to give it a go.

 Then Tim.  We brought the paddleboard and the canoe back to the rental place and the boys stayed and played in the headsprings for a bit.

 Kennedie and me headed to the giftshop that was attached to the pay window.  It had some cute stuff in there.  There is also a little concession stand.  I don't know what food they served but when we passed by, I saw they had ice cream at least.  There is also some vending machines with drinks.

 We left Rainbow Springs, back to the camper changed and decided to go down to the downtown area of Crystal River and explore some of the shops.  The sky started to look a little gloomy so we decided to have a late lunch early dinner and found a BBQ place just within walking distance.  BubbaQue's, we loved the name because we have our own Bubba!  The food was DELICIOUS!!  Tim had nacho's with brisket, and I had a brisket salad.  We decided to get some dessert and got deep fried oreo's and funnel cake fries.

 Kennedie loves all things Oreo, so when she was eating this she said it tasted like Heaven!!

It started to down pour when we were eating.  We tried to wait it out but it didn't seem to let up.  We went back to the camper and hung out the rest of the evening!

Fourth Of July weekend - day 1

We headed to Crystal River Florida for our holiday weekend!  We left for our 5 hour drive on Wednesday afternoon and arrived at around dinner time.

WOOHOO FLORIDA!!!!



So about my outfit! HAHAHA I wore the outfit I wore to work that day on the car ride down.  When we got there black jeans weren't fun for setting up camp, so I just changed into the first pair of shorts I grabbed!



First thing he did was go get in the pool!!!

We woke up and planned to celebrate fourth of July in style!

Woke up at 630 in the morning so we could pack the cooler and swim bag and be at Rainbow Springs State Park when it first opened at 8am.

Tim making breakfast!

We are all ready to head out!

Entrance to the Park

 

 It's a very pretty drive into the park.

 The entrance of the park is a little farther up this path.  There is a window that you pay at.  It's $2 per person per day.

They are VERY strict about their no floaties in the headsprings area.  You may only use pool noodles.

Right as you enter the park there is a very pretty view of the springs.  You have to walk down a pretty steep hill to get to the headsprings area.

They don't allow coolers down in the headsprings area.  When we first got there the park ranger said that we needed to bring coolers to the grassy area or these pavilions.  We found out later that the pavilion pictured here was reserved but there was no signs.  The people were pretty snippy with me but all they had to say was that it was reserved.  I really had to keep my cool the way the girls were speaking to me.  It was the dad that was the cool headed one of the group and the one I preferred speaking with.

We got there right when it opened so there wasn't a lot of people in the water.  The water stays 72 degrees year round.  You have to stay in that roped off area for swimming.

Recently we let her die her hair.  It's "oil slick" - it should last a few months if she cares for it properly.

Cale was impressed with these HUGE leaves.

While coolers weren't allowed in the headsprings area we kept ours in our wagon covered and wheeled it out when we wanted to snack. 

You can see some of the people that were set up in the grassy area.  By the time we left there were a lot more people!

The main headsprings area - there is seating but mostly people keep their bags on the seats.  We just set up our camping chairs.

The boys loved the water and snorkeling around and "treasure hunting".

We left around 2-3 when it was getting pretty crowded.

We went back to the campground and got into the pool!!

The lady that was watching Mason posted this on her pet sitting business page.  It cracked me up!  While we like bringing Mason on our adventures - it rained a lot and there wasn't really an area for him to hang out at the campground. 

We decided to head to a seafood place for dinner.  Charlies came highly recommended.

We ate outside right on the water.

I had scallops.

Cale had a burger and fries.  He's making that face because I mistook the cocktail sauce they gave me for ketchup and he ate some on a fry and it was spicy!

Kennedie also had scallops!

We headed back to the camper after dinner.  Right as we were leaving it really started to rain so we hung out inside the camper for the rest of the night!