Month: April 2022

I’ve been coming to Sarasota, Florida since 2002, when Chris brought me here to meet his parents.

I fell in love with Siesta Key the first time we made the 10-minute drive from his parents’ house. The palm trees, the white powder sand, and the blue water will never get old.

We have driven to it, biked to it, and I’ve even run to it, and every time I catch that first glimpse of what lies just ahead still makes me go a little weak in the knees.

Spring is where it’s at in Florida. The weather is beautiful and the mobs have not yet descended. I guess the situation would be different if we were at a more traditional spring break destination, but we are in central Florida, tucked safely away from Orlando and the Atlantic coast.

Chris and had a leisurely cup of coffee on the dock this morning and then drove about 15 minutes to Silver Glen Springs, where we paddled down a crystal-clear run, encountering turtles below us and sunning themselves on logs, herons flapping up out of the brush, and ospreys hauling twigs and moss to their nests on our way out to Lake George.

Once the clear water began to turn dark, we headed back. Gators prefer “black water,” and though they want nothing to do with us, I had no interest in accidentally disturbing a nest.

After we put our boards away, we walked back down the trail to snorkel in the springs. A deep blue mini-abyss is right in the middle of the swimming area, which we only had to share with a handful of other people. This place has been sacred to Native Americans, but from what we’ve heard about the summertime boat scene, we were thankful to be here now.

After fetching the kids and grabbing lunch, we went to yet another spring! This time it was Salt Springs: more crystal clear water and mini-canyons to snorkel over. Schools of bass and blue crabs the size of dinner plates passed below our masks. Again, another tranquil scene with only a handful of other people.

We have one more spring to hit tomorrow morning on our way out of Ocala National Forest. I don’t expect to be disappointed.

Raising kids is a perpetual tug-of-war (some might call it flat out bribery, which I guess it is). Eat this, and you can have dessert. Play with your sister, and you can have more screen time. Do your chores, and you can earn allowance.

As they get older, I find they’re winning the tug-of-war. We’ll settle for less. What used to be a whole day together has turned into a few truncated hours of family time. We’re in Ocala National Forest, and we went to Juniper Springs today. After a few adventurous plunges into the cool swimming hole and dives toward the sandy bottom, they retreated back to their corners, their noses in their phones, chuckling as they texted back and forth with friends and scrolled through who knows what.

Tomorrow, we have another adventure on the agenda: snorkeling at Salt Springs. Chris and I will go for a morning paddle first so we don’t have to fight to get them out of bed early, fuming as we watch the day start to slip away from us. I’m hoping this will set the stage for a day of family fun for all.