Salt Life

Geography Lesson

I love geography. The way God made our world so extremely different geographically from region to region just amazes me.

I've lived in Florida most of my life so it's home to me. Home is comfortable, mostly unchanging and sometimes boring (in a good way!). When you get used to living somewhere you take for granted the beauty that may be surrounding you. Take for instance the beach. For those of you who are land locked, the beach is more than likely a novelty. As much as I love the sand and surf, I really don't spend much time there, I think because it's so familiar I just pass it by without much thought. I forget that I have, just a few miles up the road, the warm waters of the gulf stream flowing by. I instead, look at the hatchling tree frogs (a reptile I really have much disdain for!) climbing all over my windows and feel like I'm living in a swamp (we actually do border the Everglades!!)! In my mind, I consider all of Florida as a swamp and presume that in order to see real beauty I must travel by car the 6 hours it takes just to cross the border into another state.

This vacation I realized that I don't have to leave my giant peninsula to enjoy the diversity of God's creation. There are many places here that people from all over the world come to explore. The photos above is one of those places. I knew springs like this existed, but didn't think they would be as stunning as they actually are.

Alexander Springs is located in the Ocala National Forrest. The spring basin is about 300 feet wide and 30 feet deep with the surrounding area being a white sand floor of about 2-4 feet deep. The water temperature is a constant 72º year round (cold to us Floridians, but warm to the Europeans and Northerners!) It costs $4 per person to enter but is well worth the small fee, especially in the summer when the heat index is well over 100º! It has a beautiful picnic area blanketed with enormous oak trees covered with hanging moss. There are also clean restrooms and a conscession area. A word of warning....weekends bring large crowds to the point of turning people away. You'd be wise to go on a weekday!

Labels: fun facts

posted by Kushmama @ 10:04 AM