Roots

I'm finally back with a lot to share.....

Family history is something we all probably take for granted a little bit. I sure have and I don't know about you, but I had scarcely little knowledge about my own roots on my dad's side of the family until this past weekend when my parents, me and my sister, and my niece took a trip down memory lane, going back to where my dad was born and raised in Wakulla County, Florida. Not exactly a hot spot on the map, but what a trip it was! I've got SO much to share with you that I hope you won't be bored before the week is out. It will take me that long to load all these pics I took and try to put the story together to share with y'all. We spent a quick two days down there, but saw and heard a lot. I know my dad really enjoyed finally showing us where he came from. We had heard the stories many times growing up, but it really puts a whole different slant on it when you see it in person. And I think now that I'm over 50, I can really appreciate it so much more than I would have when I was younger. So, get yourself a good cup of something and go with me to visit my roots.

This is the very first time my sister and I have been down there to see where our roots began. So, bright and early on that Saturday morning, we left Atlanta and traveled South...first stop, the Waffle House for some pecan waffles. Can you say YUM?!

My sister, Renee, our mom and my niece, Lauren, as we stopped at a roadside market for some peanuts to snack on. My sister is the snack queen and bought something everytime we stopped. Dad just got a brand new Nissan Altima this summer, so we rode in comfort all in the same car. It was so much fun. It's been a long time since we've had a family trip like this. With a wife, 2 daughters, and a granddaughter, my dad is used to waiting...a lot.
We arrived just around lunchtime in Crawfordville, FL and stopped at a restaurant they had been to before, The Seineyard. I had no idea what seineing was, but a seine is a huge net that they use to use to catch fish. That was a big part of my dad's family history, watching the men in his family catching fish with a seine net.
Here we all are enjoying our seafood lunch. Daddy grew up eating fried mullet, so was excited to get some here at the restaurant. The rest of us got seafood platters and passed on the mullet. But, I have to say...mullet was the first fish I had growing up and we had many meals of mullet and that's where I got my love of fish. I did take a bite of his mullet and it's not bad, much like I remembered it being.
Our first stop of the day after lunch was Wakulla Springs, a beautiful state park that has boat tours and is such a pretty natural wonder. My dad grew up swimming here, of course long before it was ever a state park. There are many natural clear springs all over Florida and the water is just breaktakingly beautiful. We got there just in time for the boat tour that hour.

Alarmingly, there is something going on with the springs and where this water used to be crystal clear in this deep water of the springs, it is now dark. The environmentalists with the government have come in to study this and have spent lots of money trying to figure out why this is happening and I hope they solve the mystery one of these days. There is also another alarming thing happening with the natural springs that boil up in the Gulf in this area and they have disappeared in the past year and no longer boil like my dad remembered as a young boy growing up. He was born here and lived here until he was 12. It's been almost 70 years since he lived here, but he has such fond memories of swimming and fishing in this part of Florida. They had their own natural habitat to enjoy. So, when he heard about the water turning dark and the springs that have stopped boiling, it made him very sad. I'll tell you more about the springs in a later post.
So out of the springs flows the Wakulla River and it's a beautiful, natural habitat for so much wildlife. We saw manatee, all sorts of birds, alligators, turtles, and of course lots of fish. Luckily, the water here is still crystal clear and you can see all the way to the sandy bottom of the river.
The green in the water is all the natural grasses growing along the bottom of the river.
I can't remember the name of all these birds, but they were fun to look at.
It was such a gloriously beautiful day to take all of this in and we thorougly enjoyed it.

Here's one of about a dozen manatee that have made this river their home. The boats really look out for the manatee and give them a wide range.
Some turtles and an alligator sunning on a log.
It's just a beautiful river to behold.
Mom and dad were enjoying the boatride.

I think this is an egret.
See how pretty the water is? You can easily see all the fish swimming below.
Lauren and me
Another manatee
We were also told by the tour guide that two Tarzan films (the old Johnny Weismuller ones) were filmed here. I thought that was so great. She said this is where he swung out of the trees in the movies. I loved those old movies!

And right down in this creepy looking swamp....The Creature from the Black Lagoon was filmed!
There were plenty of young folks swimming and sun-bathing when we were there. Usually only those from the North like to swim this time of year...it's way too cold for us Southerners.
Click to enlarge all of these collages. I took so many pics, I put them in a collage.
It's a beautiful area.
And I hope you enjoyed seeing it too. I've got LOTS more to share about our family weekend, so I'll post more the next couple of days. Just living my real life here....

Hope you won't be bored....I sure have enjoyed learning more about my roots and I'm glad I can take you along too. We'll get back to decorating shortly. Thank you ALL for stopping by while I was gone and chiming in on Debbie's cute lodge room. I've got a lot going on right now and it will take me all week to catch up on my Bloglines, so please bear with me. We're going to the beach next week for a few days and I'm going to have a giveaway while I'm gone! Stay tuned for that!