Sequins and Sea Breezes: florida

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Happy Thursday lovelies! If you follow me on Snapchat {pamelanicole84} you probably saw that I was in St. Augustine for an "offsite meeting" all day yesterday so that's why I was absent in the blogging world. I didn't even sit down in front of a computer yesterday (which wasn't necessarily a bad thing) but I did get to enjoy a day at the St. Augustine Distillery which is absolutely gorgeous! I can't wait to share more about it with you later when I have a chance to go through my pictures and recap it. I was gone for 12 hours yesterday and spent more than 6 in a car so I'm beat. So for now I'm sharing a bit more of the natural side of Florida with you.

A few weeks ago I posted about my adventures at Rock Springs/Kelly Park and mentioned we had originally wanted to go to Blue Spring but it quickly hits capacity. Well, I finally got a chance to make it out to Blue Spring and while it was MUCH busier than Rock Springs it was still gorgeous and such a great experience. If you ever are in Orlando and want to get away from the theme parks for a day but don't want to trek to the beach I highly recommend checking out some of the Florida springs.

I recommend checking out Blue Spring during the cooler months in Florida as one of the main attractions of the spring is the fact it's home to hundreds of manatees between November and March. Since the water stays 72 degrees year round, the manatees all make their way into the spring which the temperatures dip to stay warm. On the day we went it was a bit warmer so there weren't as many manatees in the spring as there were the weeks before but there were still about 150 manatees out. The park often hits capacity early so I recommend getting there before 10 am to ensure you get in otherwise you have to wait in a queue for someone to come out before you can go in.

You can't swim during manatee season but there are boardwalks set up with numerous viewing areas to look down on the spring and spot manatees and if you walk back through the wooded area (don't worry, you're still on a boardwalk) you can go all the way back to where the spring starts. It doesn't have as many hiking trails as Rock Springs had but I did manage to get about 2 miles worth of walking in.

The swimming area opens up in late March and then you're able to swim, snorkel, scuba dive and tube in the spring. Shortly after swimming season starts, firefly season starts! I haven't witnessed firefly season yet but since I haven't seen fireflies since I left Cincinnati I will definitely be going back to check this out next month. The park technically closes at dusk but during firefly season they let guests stay after dark to experience the "light show".

exploring

Natural Florida

2/16/2016

Happy Tuesday friends! Just as a warning, this is going to be a bit of a photo dump but I really wanted to share some of the beauty of Orlando (and Florida) many people don't even realize exists. As you may have read yesterday, I spent Saturday out exploring the natural side of Florida. There are tons of natural springs in Florida many of which are located under 2 hours from Orlando. We originally wanted to head over to Blue Springs State Park, which is about 45 minutes from my house, but due to the park being near capacity we decided to head to a smaller spring, Kelly Park Rock Springs Run.

Rock Springs is located just northwest of Orlando and is known for it's free flowing crystal clear water and year round water temperature of 70 degrees. It's a popular place in the summer for tubing and swimming and it also has grills and picnic tables to enjoy a nice meal out at the spring. The park opens at 8 am and in the summer I highly recommend getting there early as the park does often fill to capacity early but since we went during the winter we were able to get there around 11 am and have most of the park to ourselves. It's a $3 per vehicle entry fee with 1-2 people or $5 for 3-8 people. Since it was a bit too chilly for these Floridians to get in the water we took advantage of the nature trails throughout the park which often lead to the gorgeous blue water of the springs.
The weather was a perfect 70 degrees and slightly breezy when we went out for our hike so I decided to take advantage and rock my new workout top I posted about on Friday paired with my favorite capris. The low back of the top made it perfect to wear my cute sports bra. It looks incredibly like the lululemon Free to Be Bra but a fraction of the cost and it's incredibly comfortable. I topped of my look with my cheetah print Nike Free 5.0 sneakers which are super lightweight and perfect for walking and running.