Back from retro-themed vacation

We went to visit Grandma in central Florida last weekend. On our itinerary included a couple of stops that had a retro feel to them. My mother and I actually believe these stops were ones my grandmother and her siblings (and their spouses) made during their winter trips to the state in the 1950s and 60s.

Our first retro stop was to Weeki Wachee State Park. We stumbled upon information about this place during our last visit and the girls said during this trip it was a must do. It is home to the live mermaid shows.

Yes, really. Live mermaids.

Weeki Wachee Springs became part of the state parks system a couple of years ago. According to the park rangers I spoke with during our visit, the park has a "first magnitude spring" (this is actually where the mermaids perform). So for obvious reasons, the state wanted to preserve and protect the spring to ensure it stayed a beautiful natural resource. The state park service purchased the property in 2008.

You can read more about the park's history (which is really quite interesting) at the Florida State Parks website

In it's heyday, the mermaid show in the underwater theater (the 400-seat theater is actually underground) was a sold out venue most of the time. Elvis Presley was one of many celebrities that visited the park in the early 60s and posed for pictures with the mermaids. ABC networks owned the park for a while and build some elaborate sets for the mermaid shows. But for the past decade or so this park has fallen in to the shadows of the larger theme parks.

During the "Little Mermaid" show the main characters act out a ball dancing scene on land, as it is in the story. It was an impressively fast costume change.

The mermaids have to train to hold their breath to be able to perform in the show. This includes the duration they can hold their breath (in the 2-minute range) as well as demonstrate how they control their air. There was a demonstration done during the show that explained how the amount of oxygen in your lungs affects your ascent and decent in the water. More oxygen in your lungs sends you to the surface, expelling brings you lower and "just the right amount" helps you stay in one place. So for those that in tune with their airflow, there is a lot you can do to move efficiently in the water. In the video below (towards the end) I caught a bit of the demonstration by a couple of the mermaids.

There really is some science and serious athleticism required to be a mermaid.



I love the opening of the "Fish Tales" show - very entertaining (and cheesy) 50s feel to it that made us all smile. The rest of the show was much more contemporary... and super impressive.

We also had a chance to get up close and personal to a 2-year-old alligator which we all thought was pretty darn cool...

... and we visited with a peacock roaming the park (no zoom needed for this shot by G. - he was a friendly fellow)

... and took a relaxing boat cruise on the Weeki Wachee River.

The turtles were doing their morning stretches along the river.

The girls, grandma and I agreed it was a fascinating and very entertaining stop during our trip and one we hope to visit again when the water park is open as well. (Although it is "winter" in Florida right now, the 85-95 degree temperatures during our visit was a shock to our system - we Mainers really could have used a water park cool down!)

Another retro stop we made was the Citrus Tower. I knew from RoadsideAmerica.com that this place was going to have a zero wow-factor but we decided to stop anyhow.

My mother and I remembered my grandparents' slides of their visits to the tower (my cousins and I were subjected to hours and hours of slide shows in my grandparent's basement growing up complements of my grandfather's technology and my great-uncle's shutter bug ways).

The view from the top of the tower is of strip malls now rather than the acres and acres of citrus groves that once were there. Unfortunately the people managing the elevator to the top of the tower should have clued us in to the one "natural" aspect still around and seen from the top.

Hornets.

They were flying outside the windows as well as INSIDE.

I managed to get a couple of pictures and a bit of video before we all decided it was time to get the heck out of the tower.

This picture sums up L.'s thoughts about the tower. G. is trying to laugh it off but she wasn't keen on the buzzing insects either.

This was such a 50s thing but no less fun and interesting to us. Yup, you really could hear that coin drop!

Our guess was that there were several 'attractions' promoted by the state's tourism bureau to visit back in the days before the theme parks. We were amused to see a reference to Weeki Wachee here.

A picture of the view my grandparents likely saw back in the 50s and 60s.



We packed a lot in to our few days in the sunshine state - including several Halloween-themed activities, some boat rides, a corn maze adventure and an exciting seaplane ride. More on that stuff later...