Last week our day trip was much closer to home…just an hour away. Blue Springs State Park is north of us & known for wintering manatees. So, we left early in the morning, beating any crowds to see these ‘gentle giants’ as they are called here in Florida. The parks last count (yes, they have a person that tries to count them each day) was near 800.
And, we saw a ton of them!
We walked around for about 45 minutes to the different viewing stations. I was disappointed that the far end of the springs was under construction & the trail was closed off. I was just curious to walk farther & see if I could go all the way to the end. I’ve been here twice before, but couldn’t remember exactly how far the trail went. This was Danny’s first time.
On the other side of the park, there was a 3.5 mile trail we hiked. It wasn’t particularly scenic, but it was a good walk.
We left the park & drove to Black Bear Wilderness…a trail that keeps showing up on the “hike Florida’ FB page I’ve joined. And, it was a good trail! It’ a 7.1 mile loop…sadly we didn’t have time to do it all today. But, there’s a series of 14 boardwalks included in the trail & supposed to be a lot of wildlife.
Part of the trail follows along the St. Johns River…which was a really pretty part of todays hike.
We saw birds, but no other wildlife today. This one was pretty cool though!
This park is a winner! It’s about a 30 minute drive from our house & is actually a cool trail both to hike & for scenery. I can’t wait to come back & do the whole thing!
We stopped for a late lunch, at a small Cuban diner. My cubano sandwich was just ok. I’d had high hopes since the place was packed. I’m seriously considering giving up my hunt for the best cubano & just learning to make them myself.
We stopped in Casselberry to check out OMG! Thrift (yes, I do like thrift shops sometimes, especially when I have a list). I’ve been to this one once before. I found one item on the list, then we left to try the beer at Bowigens brewery. We’ve been to their other location in Avalon Park (closer to our house & a cute spot with a bar 1/2 inside & 1/2 outside), but this one was new to us. It was just ok…we liked the other location better, but the beer was good.
Getting much closer to our house at this time, we stopped in Winter Park to try a new cocktail bar I found. And it was a great choice….may be the best local cocktails we’ve found so far. The Courtesy was quiet & we hit it at happy hour which offered really good food & drinks at great prices!
The bartenders were great & the atmosphere fun, but not noisy or crazy. We rarely order two drinks, but tonight we did…they were so good & we just weren’t ready to leave after our first one.


Another good day trip of Exploring Florida! in the books!
But…on an additional note:
One week later, we drove back to Black Bear Wilderness to hike the 7.1 mile loop! We started the trail going in the opposite direction as we had last week. The trail is sandy & filled with huge tree roots, which we constantly were tripping over. On one side of the trail is a small canal coming off the river. We saw lots of birds & heard all kinds of noises in the trees.
I spotted a baby gator swimming in the green water below the trail.
The Saint Johns River.
We saw 5 baby gators all piled on top of each other, right below one of the boardwalks.
Then as we were hiking the loop back, I heard a HUGE rustle in the trees. Then I heard loud snorting. I knew there were wild pigs in the area, but was kind of ok if I never saw one too close. As I whispered to Danny there was a pig, & the loud grunting snorts followed, I took one step forward to get farther away & Danny took a step to get closer…it was kind of funny bumping into each other. But, very indicative of our opposing bravery levels. Then we heard a lot of smashing & the pig ran off in the other direction. Talking to someone at the trailhead, they said the wild pigs usually don’t harm you, but they do have great big tusks to watch out for.
This was the best trail we’ve hiked so far. And, as of now, my plan is to hike this once every 10 days or so. We’ll see.
The other pre-planned part of this day was to head into nearby Sanford after our hike. We hit up two big thrift stores right next to each other in town (found nothing), then went to the historic downtown for lunch at the Breezeway. But, our last stop was to re-visit the Suffering Bastard Tiki Bar. This place is so awesome…drinks are tasty & beautiful, it’s small & cozy & bartenders fun to visit with. We got there as soon as they opened, which was also happy hour (which we didn’t know they even had one from the first time we were here). We each ordered something new to us, then the bartender gave us a freebie, & Danny ordered another. Such a fun spot!


Not sure where or when our next Exploring Florida! trip will be….stay tuned!