1-6 to 1-9 Crystal River FL

We spent the next few days touring Crystal River by dinghy and working on the boat. As it turns out this is an incredibly naturally beautiful area. It is not over developed and super expensive like so much of southern Florida. No high-rise condos, reasonably priced restaurants, regular people live here.

Crystal River has numerous warm, fresh water springs that flow out of it so it is a haven for manatees. Stacy is very involved with saving the manatees here and runs a tour that takes people swimming with wild manatees. One afternoon they treated us to a tour, one of the highlights of our trip so far. We had the best time! Manatees are so gentle and come right up to you to play. They are a bit deceiving as they are HUGE, and when you swim up to them for the first time it is instinctive to feel afraid. This is Dave with a huge one.

But apparently manatees have no defense mechanisms, they don’t bite, nothing. There were about 2 dozen manatees in the spring we swam in. Afterwards we treated Mike and Stacy to dinner at the restaurant at our hotel Pub. Even though the rooms need some help the restaurant is actually pretty decent. This is me with a baby.



Mike and Stacy with Dave and Karen at a local Sushi Place.