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".