Beautiful Juniper Springs!

When I was a kid my dad would take us to swim in freshwater springs whenever we visited Florida. That is where he grew up so he knew all the good spots. Most of the places I had been before have closed so I asked Katie for some recommendations. We ended up at Juniper Springs in the Ocala National forest and it was amazing!

When we pulled up to pay this lady stuck that net out so fast it made us laugh. I just noticed the last rule on the sign is "Use of chainsaws is prohibited."

I left my good camera in the car so I just have phone and underwater camera pics of this place. But you can kinda see how beautiful it was! This place was built in the 1930's and this main swimming area has a ledge built all around, and a sandy bottom. The water was FREEZING and crystal clear. It took a second to get used to but I loved it! I could have stayed in all day!

We almost got the hang of Crystal's underwater camera on this outing. The secret seems to be to hold it underwater for a while before you start shooting so the lens isn't fogged up. Most of the above water shots are really foggy because of condensation. Then of course water got in the camera and ruined it about halfway through so it didn't matter that I figured it out. Dang!

Little fish! After we had been in about four hours we saw some kind of freshwater eel thing under this ledge and got scared and left. Haha! We saw a turtle to!

We all got goggles for the occasion. It was a good move!

My snorkel lasted about 2 minutes. I kept going too deep and breathing in water.

Travis was the bravest and would go the deepest and furthest. We got the best underwater pics of him! See his appropriate manatee tattoo? 

The middle of the swimming area was full of these plants. Which looked really cool as you were swimming over them. I felt like I was swimming in the black lake, going to find my treasure during the Tri-Wizard Tournament. It was gross when it touched you by surprise though.

Travis kept swimming down into it and sitting in little clearings of it. 

Crystal was scared to swim in it at first and preferred to stay in her float.

It's hard to know where to aim with the underwater camera. You can't really look through the viewfinder, or see the screen while it's underwater. There were many attempts at a photo of me and Travis. Here is one.

And another.

And here is one of me being a mermaid. Oh my gosh I loved swimming in here so much! This is making me want to head out to rock island again as soon as possible! If only it was so clear!

Pointing at a fish.

Fwiends. 

Travis kept swimming so deep! I tried but it made my ears hurt. He could swim almost down to the mouth of the spring. He even found a shark tooth!

How cool! Too bad he put it in his wallet and broke it. Dang!

I think we were there a total of six hours. We even had a picnic lunch. Nothing tastes so delicious as a good sandwich after you've been swimming for hours. It was a perfect way to spend the day! 

Around Town in St. Augustine Part Two

Hope you aren't sick of my vacation posts already! I've still got the Wizarding World to go! But we're heading to the world's longest yard sale this weekend so I'm sure I won't be able to wait to post about that! Here is the last post about St. Augustine. There are a lot of tourist destinations in town. We didn't really want to tour any of them, but it was fun to go outside of them and take photos!

This fort is called the Castillo de san Marcos. My dad made us go there when I was about 13 and it was SO HOT and booooooring to a teenager. We had a lot more fun posing outside. We were laughing so hard and there is a busy road about 30 feet away. I love having friends who will be silly in public.

Maybe a new classic?

Remember when jumping photos got so popular? Now I remember why, they are so funny to look at later! Look at Travis!!!

And the classic "Holding up the fort" shot. Travis and I actually toured the fort when we stopped in St. Augustine two years ago. It is pretty interesting, but more bearable when it isn't 95 degrees!

Another cute house! I need a porch like this. 

I couldn't get over the trees! I love how so many of them have grown like this, like they are constantly being blown over.

We could see this lighthouse in the distance all week and had to go in for a closer look. Isn't it cute with those stripes?

And of course we had to go to Mellow Mushroom at least once while we were on vacation. It's tradition! I love that place. Some of the best vegan pizza in the world!

Yummmmm.

We also had to stop by the old jail. Lots of the trolley tours start in the parking lot and there are lots of shops in a little strip mall type thing. We didn't plan to, but we arrived after everything was closed. Which was fine, because then we could take as long as we wanted taking dumb photos.

I'm a little bummed we didn't see any gators the whole time we were in Florida! Unless you count the baby ones on display at a gas station we stopped at.

The old jail definitely had some of the best photo ops we came across during the trip.

I called the one with the dog! 

We were taking pictures posing under these gallows and I came up with idea of trying to look like we were being hanged. We talked about photo shopping ropes in but I think that makes it toooooo gruesome. This one made me cry I was laughing so hard. I love it! Another new classic!

Sometimes it is hard to get the perfect shot. There are probably over 100 of these.

Such a good pose. It works in every situation right?

On our way out of town we stopped at the Manatee Cafe for breakfast. For some reason it is hard to find vegan breakfast places so Travis and I are always thrilled when one pops up!

I kinda can't believe we didn't see a manatee either? This restaurant had a mural in the bathroom of a mermaid and a manatee. They are so cute.

I got vegan pancakes with bananas and walnuts. They were amazing!!

We also saw this beautiful baby in the parking lot of Publix TWICE. Isn't he/she gorgeous? There was someone sitting in there with him and now I wish I would have walked up and asked them if I could pet that sweet bulldog.

Thanks for being so great St. Augustine! It was the perfect beach town for us! 

Vintage Hunting in St. Augustine

We spent an afternoon vintage shopping in St. Augustine while there on vacation. I hadn't looked up any shops before we went because I wasn't sure if the friends we were traveling with would be interested. BUT on our way to lunch on day we passed a few antique malls and shops and had to take a look! What I really wanted was some kind of kitschy Florida thing, like this key rack...

 Kinda loved that monk cookie jar.

 Those squirrel salt and pepper shakers almost fit the bill.

 What do you think that metal container is? It looks like cake carriers I've seen but it's so tall, maybe 20 inches? It was covered with fun stuff to do like skiing and swimming and driving fast!

 I'll take that chalk bulldog! Or the eagle!

 This pink place was called A Step Back in Time. 

It had the most bakelite/celluloid/early plastic I've ever seen in one place! This case had shelf after shelf of it! I loved the little stands they were using to display the bangles.

I looked in here for a LONG time. I'm not really a jewelry wearer but it's fun to look at. There were so many brooches I would have loved to bring home! But the prices were very high.

See how cute the stands are? You can actually see what I decided to bring home in this photo. You can probably guess...that pink dog brooch!

I'll take the flamingo, and is that a lobster?!

 Celluloid cat charm with googly eyes!

  Don't those rings look cute stacked up like that? 

 I was excited to see this bakelite brooch! The style is the inspiration behind so many of the beautiful pieces sold by Luxulite. And look at that price tag! $450! Is that insane? I don't know much about bakelite prices really, but geeze!

 There was so much good stuff in these display cases! I could have looked all day! I really need a glass display case for my house.

 Beautiful flamingos!

 Those chalk grumpy babies were amazing too.

 And you know I'm always down to browse some vintage Christmas.

We had a lot of fun browsing, even if I only made one purchase. I'll always think of this amazing trip when I wear it.