15. Wakulla Springs - November 7th - 9th, 2009

For my 23rd birthday, Tom and I stayed two nights at Wakulla Springs, which is a Spanish-style hotel that was built in the 1930's and kept time-period specific. The hotel is 30 minutes outside Tallahassee and a great place to stay the night if you don't mind being a little ways from town. All of the rooms have furniture from the 1930's, most of which matched and appeared to be original to the hotel. When the cleaning ladies had all the doors opened we happened to be walking around and they let us see all the rooms. The rooms are all the same price: $105 a night on the weekend and 95$ on weeknights. The two suites are always $105. Some overlook the water, some have one queen bed while others have two fulls, or two fulls and a twin, but they are first-come first-serve with no price differences, which is a trademark of the state park system.

One of the first things we noticed when we walked in the hotel, and something that kept us entertained the entire time, was an original elevator. We had to manually pull open the door and push a button for it to close. I had never seen anything like it. We rode the elevator every chance we got. Sometimes I think Tom would think of things we needed upstairs just to ride the elevator.

The last owner of this property, Edward Ball, bought the spring and the 2 miles of river it connects to and made it a wildlife preserve in the 1930's. He went as far as putting a fence up so that boaters could not get past. He was a millionare and had a lot of pull, so the fence stayed, with the ruling that the river was deemed impassible because it deadended in Ball's property. Because of this, the animals for generations have not been disturbed by people. To this day, they do not allow kayakers and canoers in the water.

The only way to go down the river is on the cute boats they send out once an hour. Tom and I actually went on the very first boat ride of the morning at 9:30 a.m. I suggest this because it appeared as though the others after ours were slammed full, while ours was only about 1/4 full. We saw many alligators, anahingas, turtles, manatees, etc. It was a very nice way to start the morning.

We did hike several of the trails, which were not anything special, but enjoyable nonetheless. The other part of the trip we really enjoyed was the food. We had a special package where for $135 you got your hotel room for one night, two boat tickets, and a three course meal and drink in the dining room. It was very fancy. For dinner, I had prime rib and Tom had New York strip steak. Both of got a yummy chocolate explosion cake for dessert. We also ate in the dining hall for breakfast, but I found that it probably would have been a good way to save money if we would have just brough bagels or Pop-Tarts. We paid about $7 each for French toast and eggs, which was not really worth it.

There is also a real live soda fountain on site. I thought it would be like in the pictures I have seen, but really all that is left of the soda fountain is the bar, which is made of marble. Tom got a mint chocolate chip shake (his favorite), while I got the house special - a ginger yip. It was basically a vanilla shake with a small can of ginger ale. I recommend it.

One of the nights we were there we watched "Creature from the Black Lagoon" on the only TV in the hotel, which was downstairs. The movie was filmed at Wakulla Springs, and if you ask they will play it for you. Of course, this means I asked. I found the movie quite enjoyable, and not scary at all. The Tarzan from the 1940's was also filmed there. The tree in the picture is the tree which Tarzan swung from. It had since died and will soon sink into the river.

I could go on and on for pages, but I guess I will stop here. Wakulla Springs is an unusual state park -- an example of the park system not only saving a piece of natural Florida, but also a hotel from yester year.

Til next time,

The camping bug