I intended to go to Weeki Wachee Springs State Park and FINALLY see the nearly mythical mermaid show. I was ready to calculate the most opportune time to wait in line with my two children and devise infinite means of trying to placate their boredom as we stood around.

I intended to go to Weeki Wachee Springs State Park and swim a little down the river towards where, on my last (and only other visit), I saw a manatee leisurely swim near to me and forage in the grasses on the edge of the water. I brought my sons’ floatation devices (a sit-in floatie for the youngest, a life jacker for the eldest) so that we could all participate.

But before all of that, I intended to start the day with their boat cruise, which was an attraction I knew nothing of before doing my preliminary research before this trip.

Those are the things I intended to do at Weeki Wachee Springs State Park, and those are the things I could have done if I had prepared a bit better. But it’s rare that I get things quite right, so the story of our visit to Weeki Wachee is a bit different and missing 2/3 of the frills of the attraction. That’s not to say we didn’t have a great time–we did–and it’s not to say that this blog post is going to have a negative tone–it won’t. It’s just my little disclosure at the start that there’s quite a bit more to the park than what my family and I enjoyed today–if you’re organized enough to prepare for it and want to spend a little money*.

Enough of the exposition! Let me speak now of our actual trip.

Our start in the morning was slow. We left about an hour later than we ought to have left to avoid the peril of being denied entrance due to the park reaching capacity, as it apparently does quite early on some summer days. When we rolled in at around 11, though, we were lucky in that the initial line had vanished into the park’s gates. With our stroller, floaties, cooler-with-lunch, big thermos water bottle, and bag of clothes, towels, and sunblock, we walked the path lined with vaguely inappropriate mermaids with no delays.

Although foot traffic is diverted from what once must have been the main entrance, a nice water feature/statue of yet more nude characters lays just in front of (but behind you, if you’re in line already) the entrance gate. My eldest son excitedly asked if he could play in it and was a little disappointed to learn that it was just for decoration.

As mentioned before, our entrance into the park was really quite expedited. We only had a couple of stalled minutes when we reached the entrance, where we were quickly directed to the customer service window for entry using our Florida State Park annual pass. (With our pass and my ID to confirm its validity, our entry was free. Otherwise, I believe we would have paid something like $17 per adult. There was a charge for children of a certain age–I believe it was $13–but I don’t know at what age such a charge kicks in.)

Once we were in, we took a left at the fork that led us either to the waterpark or… the miscellaneous side. (That’s my term, not their term.) I wanted to start with the miscellaneous bits so that I would not need to try to control an exhausted toddler through another step of adventure after asking him to leave the fascinating water or sand or dirt or what-have-you.

The grounds are well-maintained on the miscellaneous side (somehow, despite our drought, they still had lush grass???). My son was eager for the photo opportunity as a mermaid.

And… A strike of luck… we spotted a peacock (Not native, but always a fun thing to discover–especially for a child)…

And an albino peahen… AND A BABY!!!

After dissuading my son from following the increasingly weary peahen and its chick, we headed to the very end of the park, where there was a well-maintained restroom, a simple playground, a party hall, a cafe (I think?) and the boat dock. I was all ready to sign up for a boat ride, but my dream were dashed when I found that all rides–save for the 3:30 and 4 pm trips–were full. Staying ALL day was out of the question, thus, so was riding the boat on this particular trip. (Apparently, you could reserve spots on these rides ahead of time. That’s life lesson #1, which I learn often: prepare better. Research more. Make sure you do what you need to do BEFORE you do the thing.)

I thought a little about looking into the status of the next couple mermaid shows, but did nothing as we walked to the other side of the park to lather on some sunblock, inflate a baby float, and descend into the crisp and refreshing Weeki Wachee on a characteristically hot summer day in Tampa Bay.

As you can see, the “water park” side of the park offers sandy beaches, free (if you can get one…) chairs to relax and sunbathe on, and lots of sandy patches to plant your own umbrella or tent or blanket on. We had forgotten any such things so had to lay down our towels to picnic on when lunchtime rolled around. (Again with that life lesson related to preparedness…)

As you go deeper in, you also come across a small children’s wading pool area (which was basic, but surprisingly peaceful to hang out in), a fairly large water slide, a kiosk renting tubes to travel a bit of the river in, the staircase to enter the water in as a regular Joe swimmer, an outdoor bar area, and a small restaurant and concession stand. I didn’t get a good picture of the swarm of people in the swimming area, as I forgot my waterproof phone case and didn’t risk either A. not swimming at all or B. turning my phone into a paperweight, but let me tell you that there was a large crowd, mostly milling about and taking good advantage of the chilly spring water, and a smaller crowd gathered about thirty feet out on a floating dock, jumping into the water in turns.

As for the swimming area: would it be nicer with less people? Assuredly. Did I still enjoy it? Yes, especially once I started to swim and escaped the thickest crowd near the entrance/exit stairs.

Anyhow–I also enjoyed what we did next, which was head to the children’s pool area (well, technically it was “wait twenty minutes to get into the children’s pool area because of restrictions on number of children at a time,” but…) and sit on our butts as our children enjoyed being children.

And that brings me to life lesson #2: simple things can bring a lot of contentment, and contentment can bring you happiness if you appreciate it.

My husband and I were content sitting in that pool–but my sons were VERY happy to splash around/go down the tiny little “waterslide”/roll in the water for a good twenty minutes before we started our picnic. It was at this time that my husband and I talked a bit about another aspect of preparedness: how on future trips, we ought to bring beach tents, umbrellas, chairs, etc. so as to avoid the shortfalls of sitting and dining on the dirt. A good proposal, I’d say, but one that makes me nervous–we already have to carry so many things! (In fact, it was very good for us that we did not have much to pack out today–take a look at the sky and guess why.)

Of course, a sky like that meant rain was imminent. I wanted to be at the car by the time it arrived, so we packed our things up and began to head out. From there, I took some hurried pictures on our way out, which you’ll see from here on.

Even though I was weary of the thunderclouds gathering, few others seemed alarmed. Mostly everyone kept doing what they were doing, whether that was swim, sunbathe, or queue in line for the mermaid shows (which were also sold out very early on, according to my husband, who had checked).

The rain held a bit. We were near the exit. Escape was so close. We could feel it!

Unfortunately, some of us could also feel that we needed to use the restroom before exiting the park, so we made a detour away from the parking lot and towards the restrooms. This allowed my son to play on their playground for a few minutes as I quickly transitioned the youngest into dry clothes from his swimsuit.

By the time oldest son decided to use the restroom and get dressed, the rain had arrived.

We raced our way to the front of the park, passing all the bits and pieces we missed once again. Among those things was the back end of the mermaid’s theater, where legend holds the mermaids themselves enter and exit. (A girl I knew from middle school worked as one of the Weeki Wachee mermaids for some time, so I suppose she once walked that forbidden path.)

Once we reached the cover of the entrance gate, my husband went to retrieve the car from the overflow lot we’d had to park in upon arrival… Leaving some of us, like my youngest, asking why? Why did the Lord send rain on this, of all, days?!

(Okay, he wasn’t being that dramatic. In fact, he was very chill with the whole situation, and was happy to start his nap once we set off for home. Still–life lesson #3: you’re not the most important person at a park, and you’re certainly not the most important thing in the world. When it’s ready to rain, rain it will, and you must adapt and ought to be glad for it–if your neighborhood ponds and creeks have shriveled up and died of late.)

As we buckled ourselves into the car, thunder finally began to rumble. I assume that means the park’s operations suspended(?), or at least that everyone was forced from the water… But I can’t be sure, because we sped (okay, not sped–we drove normally) back home and all took it easy/took a nap for a while.

So–we went to Weeki Wachee. We didn’t see the mermaids, didn’t tube, didn’t go on the boat, we didn’t slide down the water slide, and didn’t eat any food or drink any drinks. But we did have fun, and we did have the freedom to bring in the food and drinks we needed (from home) to stay hydrated and satiated while we were there, and my children had fun and know not that they missed anything they may have liked more. For very little money* my kids had a blast, and I got to GO SWIMMING IN A SPRING WHICH IS SO WONDERFUL AND INVIGORATING and infinitely better than ocean swimming and something I REALLY WANT TO DO MORE OFTEN. It was a great little trip, considering that we are at full liberty to return again another day, better equipped to take full advantage of all the park has to offer.

*”Spend a little money” can have a lot of meanings in today’s crappy economy. From what I spied, the prices for most of the extras at Weeki Wachee were not unreasonable, though not markedly cheap, either: it would have been $10 to rent a tube per person, $25 if we had chose to rent a tent, and it was $7 for the locker we did choose to utilize. I am not sure what the prices of gift shop fare were or how much a drink (alcoholic or not) or concession item would have cost us. So–if you have a modest budget of, say $100, you could upgrade your experience a bit. We wanted to minimize costs almost entirely, though.