Disney words of wisdom

What I love most about rivers is:

You can't step in the same river twice

The water's always changing, always flowing

With my ever-strong love for Disney, these words from Pocahontas’ “Just Around the Riverbend” come too easily to mind when I think of Florida’s rivers and springs. Unfortunately, we may not have the chance to see what is "just around the riverbend" (or, in this case, what our struggling springs will look like years down the road) if we don’t clean up our act –if we do not deviate from our current wasteful and consumptive ways, the waters may not be “always flowing.” Apparently Pocahontas didn’t see this one coming.

But what I want to focus on in this post is the idea that just like you can’t step in the same river twice, you can’t jump in the same spring twice, because the water is (hopefully) always flowing there too. I will refrain from concentrating too heavily on some pressing springs health topics and environmental issues that clearly need attention – namely that the springs change each time we jump in them because there are higher concentrations of nitrates and overwhelming amounts of algae and lower flow rates and water levels.

Since the trend has been downward for springs and water quality in Florida, it is interesting to note visible changes in the springs and also to make observations that give me a bit of optimism that there are still ways to save our springs and reverse this negative trend. Since May 2012, I have been to Silver Glen six times and have noted both interesting seasonal changes in regards to species diversity and behavior as well as other changes that do not speak well for the health of these magnificent ecosystems. But this is not a eulogy for our springs – yes they are dying, but they are not yet dead, and we can bring them back. And to show that you really cannot jump in the same spring twice, here are some chronicles of my Silver Glen Springs visits, all exciting and unique in their own ways:

Just another day at the office - 9/20/12, 9/24/12

The weightless feeling of zero gravity.

I am slowly sinking into the well.

For a moment, I can feel the fish as they swirl and engulf me as I descend.

Usually off-limits, I have imagined this many times,

and even now it seems like it was all a dream.

During these two days at Silver Glen, I explored “beyond the rope” with the Silver Glen Springs Cave diving team. The team is made up of veteran cave divers, photographers, videographers, cave explorers (and all-around-amazing people) and their mission is to explore the cave and spring for the U.S. Forest Service while raising awareness about our water resources and educating people about our springs. And they are documenting it all (including Aussum Pit – my dream dive destination) in HD.

The little description above is how I felt as I passed under the rope and descended into the natural well that I had longingly looked at so many times before. Eric followed closely behind as I floated through the sun-laden waters through about 450 swirling striped bass. Despite being in absolute heaven, I was still on auto-pilot, snapping pictures left and right to use later to do an accurate fish count and detail the interesting underwater trilobitic (cave-dwelling) creatures that few people have the chance to see. In the cave, we saw American eels and freshwater shrimp beneath the rocks and in dark crevices. In the natural well, there were about 450 fish, including striped bass (Morone saxatilis), striped bass hybrid (Morone saxatilis x Morone chrysops), and blue tilapia (Oreochromis aureus).

The natural well is on the other side of this rope. The sign says "Restricted Area, Closed to the Public."

On the second day the next week, equipped with a mask and snorkel, I patrolled the area around the rope and explored the main basin, noting every fish and crustacean species I saw - mostly by documenting them with photos. Some fish were very small and cryptic, and as I floated motionless in the algae on the outskirts of the basin, I saw tiny minnows that were previously disguised. The water was warm on the edges, so I enjoyed some time floating in the shallows until swimming around again to keep warm - should've worn my 5mm! In the main basin, there were four species of sunfish as well as numerous mullet and spotted bass. Hopefully this list of species is helpful to the Forest Service, or simply interesting for people to see how diverse springs are - I counted 24 fish/crustacean species and I'm sure I missed some!

Shortly after these two visits to Silver Glen Springs and another to Ginnie for work, I decided to start a separate website for photography (J. Adler Photography). Photos from these two “work” trips to Silver Glen are on this site too J

Sharing Silver Glen with my Dad – 10/21/12

My dad flying like an astronaut in the main basin. More photos.

Getting a later start than expected the day after a long Gator game day of festivities, we still made it to Silver Glen before the Sunday afternoon crowds. After Memorial Day the hustle and bustle of spring-goers really dies down anyway, so we didn’t have much crowd-battling to do to make our way out through the Ocala National Forest to Silver Glen.

Last time the whole family visited, we went to nearby Juniper Spring, but there were so many people in the small basin at once that they did not get the full gin-clear, beautiful experience. Although it was certainly a crash-course in country southern living and style. This time, I was determined to show my dad what a spring should look like (prefacing it of course with the fact that it should not in fact look like it did, choked with swirling, brown algae – but the water was a pretty crystal blue color).

Photojournalist from the Tampa Bay Times.

We spent a long time swimming around in the main basin, free diving to the bottom where the water gushes out of the spring and playing with the seemingly endless schools of mullet, who were as happy as kids in a candy shop feasting on the algae. As usual, I became totally engulfed in taking pictures – and to my surprise, I looked up and saw the big dome of another underwater camera. Apparently somebody else had the same idea of a fun way to spend a Sunday… but he was clearly taking pictures of me and I thought that was kind of weird…

Those fins look familiar... check out the whole video here.

Until of course I stuck my head out from under the water and said hello as we were walking out of the spring. Pulling my hood back from my ears, I heard him say that he was a photojournalist from the Tampa Bay Times and introduce himself as Chris Zuppa. He said they were working on an article about the springs that would be in the paper at the end of November and wondered if I minded answering some questions. He asked me where I’d swam, what my job was, what I thought about the state of the springs, etc. and got my email address and contact info for further questions. This run-in not only made me want to be a photojournalist but also made me happy that the springs were going to get media coverage – the article “Florida’s Vanishing Springs” by Craig Pittman was in the Tampa Bay and the fins on the cover of the video looked pretty familiar (see link in the caption below to watch the video).

Craig Pittman also created a website called Florida's Vanishing Springs where he posted articles about a few springs. There is one called "Scientists puzzled by Silver Glen’s mystery algae"and one about Ginnie, among others. The main newspaper article rain in the Tampa Bay Times on November 25, 2013. 

Monica and Sarah – 1/12/13

Monica and Sarah playing in the sky. More photos from the day are here.

In a whirlwind tour of the south, including alligators galore on the La Chua Trail, tubing adventures down the Ichetucknee, and diving at Ginnie, it seemed impossible not to show my sister and cousin my favorite spot in Florida. So, I piled them plus Greg (and the slackline, masks, fins, snorkels, etc) into the Prius and started the backwoods drive. The trip almost went badly when I turned one street too early onto “Slaughter Road”… we didn’t stay on that road long enough to see what it led to. The vegan in me immediately turned the car around and headed for “Silver Lake Road.” Much better. But Silver Lake Road took us to 19 South and eventually Silver Glen. And although it was the sixth time I’d swam in the spring, it felt completely different.

As I swam towards the natural well, I got a sinking feeling in my heart. I noticed right away that the algae was much worse than it was the last few times I swam here at the end of 2012. After going through my pictures, I found identical shots only 4 months apart. I'm not entirely sure if algae fluctuates seasonally and/or with sunlight, recreational use, and other factors, but I'm sure some of this has to do with nitrates, which are known to increase algal growth. I just hope that it doesn't continue to change this fast.

I posted this photo to Facebook with the same description as above. To see the comments, click here.




    

Another "then" and "now" picture from Silver Glen Springs. There are about 4 months between the top and bottom photos, taken in the same area of the spring basin... Looks like something (mullet? manatees? other grazers?) had a field day with the grass... and so did the algae. Comments are here.

The unclear and algae-laden waters actually make it more crystal clear that we must do something to save our springs. What’s waiting “just around the riverbend” is not beautiful or healthy, unless we are all willing to change how we use and view water and how we treat the land in our watersheds. There is still so much to see and love in our springs – each visit to Silver Glen yielded new species and different landscapes, but it is hearbreaking to see negative changes so quickly. I have been lucky to be a part of the Springs Eternal project and would love to share it with everybody, as it touches on all of these issues. It is a three-part project (art exhibition, Urban Aquifer buses, and website) that educates people about our springs and freshwater resources and makes them aware of current and future problems that we will endure. You can find the complete project description here and can also find us on Facebook here. The exhibition, featuring the amazing photography of John Moran, starts on March 23, 2013 at the Florida Museum of Natural History and the magnificent buses, designed by Lesley Gamble, will be driving around Gainesville soon.

Nesting blue tilapia (Oreochromis aureus) were a new sight in mid-January.

Two for One!

Two First Magnitude springs, one weekend of camping! 

1. Florida Caverns State Park (#13 Bozell Springs) 

2. Ecofina Creek (#14 Gainer Springs Group)

Camping at Florida Caverns State Park – #13 Bozell Springs

A little over a year ago, Kate, Angela, and I went on a little tour of the Panhandle led by Harry – we went diving in beautiful caverns at dive sites that were otherwise inaccessible and unknown to us. We got a great first taste of springs diving up in northwest Florida as we explored Vortex Spring, Morrison Spring, and Jackson Blue Spring. And this past Martin Luther King Day weekend, I found myself back in the quaint town of Marianna, FL near Jackson Blue Spring – but this time for a 3-day camping trip to Florida Caverns State Park.

On Friday, Greg, Adrienne, Ben, and I loaded up the Prius and Adrienne’s big truck for the 3.5-hour drive out to the park. After about an hour of driving north on I-75, we turned west onto I-10 and not much changed for about 150 miles. Forests, grasslands, and pastures of cows or horses here and there flew by at 80 miles an hour as the miles went by. The whole drive reminded me what natural Florida really looks like – a big theme for the weekend spent entirely outdoors. It was a very contrary view of Florida as compared to how many sunshine state vacationers may envision their typical Disney or Miami Beach excursions.

We gained an hour as we crossed the Apalachicola River and passed into the Central time zone, arriving in time to have enough light to set up our little campsite and build a fire to prepare for the 30-something degree temperatures that night. 

John Moran had been nice enough to give me some detailed insider tips about the park and I couldn’t be more happy and thankful that he did -  we ended up seeing things that we would have otherwise totally missed  - all within steps of our campsite. After a chilly night, we started our first morning by exploring the karst window and little cave behind our campsite as well as the Blue Hole...

Blue Hole, a swimming hole by our campsite at Florida Caverns State Park. We didn't actually swim in this one because it was murky/cloudy turquoise colored.

Above (left): Exploring a dry cave near our campsite during the day (top photo) then at night, playing with long exposures and lights (second 2 photos). Above (right): tree roots growing down into a limestone chimney. This area behind our campsite was full of chimneys and karst windows (one pictured below).

We first came across this karst window during the daytime (first photo) then went back at night to paint it with lights and take more photos (second 2 photos).

After trekking around behind our campsite, we took a cave tour – the park’s main attraction. Walking down into the cave was pretty bizarre, as most caves I’ve been exposed to so far are underwater. I kept feeling naked without my tank, BC, regulator, and dive light/backup light. It was tempting to bring, but walking in flippers may have proved fatal in this situation. Although there were puddles of water throughout the cave and apparently it has completely flooded in the past. I asked our nice guide if people were allowed to dive in it when it flooded, but she said that all of the lights/electricity in the cave don’t mix well with divers aka it’s not a good idea. I’m thinking if they turned off all of the electricity it would be fine… But anyway, for the time being, an air-filled underground cave tour was perfect and absolutely breathtaking – the cave formations were amazing and the colorful lights they added in some of the rooms created a brilliant effect.

Stalagtites and stalagmites under natural lighting, versus...

...with colorful lighting in another part of the cave.

Two more colored parts of the cave... almost looks like fire & ice.

Greg in the big colorful room of the cave. He's excited we're not in an underwater cave :)

After about a 45 minute cave tour, we rented a canoe from the state park and launched it into the Chipola River - I had been looking forward to this for weeks. In my continued quest to swim in every first magnitude spring in Florida, I searched out those in the area and found that the Bozel Spring group (also called Baltzell or Bosel) is just 1.5 miles up the Chipola River from the state park canoe launch – aka way too close to pass up while staying at the park! Some sources say Bozel is not a first magnitude spring because they look at only Bozel #2, but many regard the whole Bozel Springs Group (4 springs together) as a magnitude 1 group... so I’m going with that explanation. #2 is the largest and is probably a second magnitude spring. We launched 2 canoes for the 4 of us (plus Tigger!) and paddled upstream for about 30 minutes. The flow wasn’t bad because the water level was so low – no rain for a while left the river banks exposed and the spring runs shallow. 

This is the main spring pool of Bozel #2. This spring was featured in a March 1999 issue of National Geographic on p. 47... I still need to look it up to compare the photos. The pool here is about 35 feet in diameter and 12 feet underwater, there is a limestone fissure about 18 feet long that leads to a cave system.

I anxiously anticipated the sight of the spring run the whole way there – I didn’t know exactly what to look for except that the run was on the right bank of the river a few minutes after the sign for the boundary of the state park and that there were some “no trespassing” signs at the end of one of the spring runs. Of the 4 different springs that make up the Bozel Spring group, #2 is the easiest to find, and it ends up that’s the one we came across first. And to my surprise, another motor boat was going up the run at the same time as us, at first making me mad that their engine was messing up the beautiful vegetation when I thought they were fishermen. This agitation later gave way to excitement when they started chatting with us and pulling cave diving gear out of their boat. Apparently this little-known spring has a beautiful cave system attached to it (http://www.technicaldiver.com/rbearbozell.html)! Some day I hope to come back and explore that too J

The first thing that struck me about Bozel was the different vegetation. There were a couple types that I  had never seen before - some that was red and pink-ish and others that looked like big lettuce leaves. There were also a surprising number of snails all over the fallen trees and on the leaves of submerged vegetation throughout the spring. They were doing a pretty good job of keeping the algae grazed as compared to many of the springs around Gainesville. The water was fairly clear when we got in but we quickly stirred up the bottom with the four of us plus Tigger swimming around.

We spent a long time free-diving and taking pictures in the spring. Tigger took it upon himself to remove sticks/trees from the spring and was quite successful – after of course being almost successful at eating my fins. Apparently he was attracted to my fast-moving tennis-ball colored fins…

We spent a long time free-diving and taking pictures in the main basin. Tigger took it upon himself to remove sticks/trees from the spring and was quite successful - after of course being almost successful at eating my flippers. Apparently he was attracted to my fast-moving tennis-ball colored fins...

The spring run is clear and shallow (1-3 feet deep)
and about 800 feet long. Colorful vegetation is
plentiful around the edge of the spring pool.

An isolated spring pool was visible nearby, but we were told to stay off the land (by the state park rangers in addition to a million signs), so we figured out in the back woods it wasn’t worth the risk of touching the private land around the open spring. It probably would have been fine but we didn’t want to push our luck and were frozen anyway, so we headed out the long spring run back to the river. We were unsuccessful at making it up any of the other runs as they were all dried up, too shallow, or blocked by trees, but we were happy to that we found Bozel #2 and I was more than excited to swim in another magnitude 1! 

Ecofina Creek - #14 Gainer Springs Group

We launched near Strickland Springs on this map... we'll
have to go back and explore the springs just north. This map
represents about 2 miles of river... our takeout point was
about 6.5 miles downstream of Gainer Springs.

The next morning after the excitement of my 13^th magnitude 1 swim, we had plans to rent canoes from the nearby Bear Paw shop. But unfortunately they were not answering the phone and seemed to be closed during the off-season. Determined to spend another day on the water, we called the Ecofina Creek Canoe Livery, located about an hour southwest of the park near Panama City. They weren’t exactly open either, but the owner said they would open by reservation, so by 11am, Greg and I were at Ecofina Creek with 2 kayaks, wetsuits, masks, fins, and 8 miles of river and about a half dozen springs ahead of us.

There are 11 springs or spring groups with 36 separate vents in the Ecofina Creek Basin. We were in the middle section of Ecofina Creek near the 20 bridge. In the grand scheme of Ecofina Creek (encompassing almost 200,000 acres), all of the springs are within a .75 mile section, which corresponds to the intersection of Ecofina Creek and the Floridan Aquifer.

Other than the first magnitude Gainer Springs group, 4 springs in the Ecofina Creek basin are classified as second magnitude, 6 are third magnitude, and 2 are fourth magnitude. The magnitude denotes how much flow comes out of the spring vent... the largest (>100cfs) are first magnitude springs. Ecofina Creek flows into Deerpoint Lake, which is the public water supply for Panama City.

Since I didn’t realize we were going to end up at Ecofina Creek, I hadn’t really done my research and didn’t know what was in store for us except that John said it is absolutely amazing. Thankfully there was a little map at the canoe livery place, but I forgot to take a picture of it, so since returning to Gainesville, I have been reading everything I can find about Ecofina Creek - I discovered that we actually swam in another magnitude 1 spring group called the Gainer Springs Group!! The Gainer Spring complex is made up of 5 springs, creatively named Gainer #1-5. Gainer #1 has 9 different vents, so it is actually Gainer #1a-i. So confusing. A few of the larger springs actually have other names too. The spring in this complex that was the most brilliant was the privately-owned Emerald Spring – also known as Gainer #2. It is the most noticeable and the largest because the owners actually dug it out so that there is a big artificial island in the middle. Since water is public property, we could explore the spring but not the surrounding land.

This is a collage of some pictures I took throughout the day. The full album of photos is on Facebook in my Panhandle Exploring album. The middle picture of this collage is Greg kayaking next to Gainer #3 and the others are a compilation from Strickland, Williford, Bluff, Sylvan, Pitt, Fenceline, Gainer #1, and Gainer #2 springs. So many springs, so little time!! Think that's a new record for the number of springs I've ever explored in one day. Best day ever!

We found a little spring up a tiny spring run that was
hidden under a fence and through the woods.
I think it was Gainer #1(aka McCormick Springs).
At first the natural pool surrounded by cyprus
and mixed hardwoods didn't look too impressive
until we saw what looked like black bubbles
at the surface in the corner. They turned out to
be bull frog tadpoles!! This is a closeup of the bullfrog
tadpoles... apparently they are bigger as tadpoles
than they are when they first turn into frogs!

All of the springs were basically in the first 1.5 miles of our trip and we spent so long exploring each one that this took us until 3pm… leaving us with an hour to get the kayaks another 6.5 miles downstream. Oops. We covered this last 6.5 miles in a little over an hour and by the end I could barely hold the paddle up. Ouch! Thankfully the guy from the canoe livery wasn't mad that we were 30 minutes late - we must have looked sore, tired, and happy to see him! He cheerily drove us home and told us stories as we recounted our adventures from the day and picked his brain about local knowledge and some crazy things we came across (like the tadpoles in the picture to the left!).

Here is a Google Earth screenshot of the 8 mile section of Ecofina Creek that we kayaked.  I rotated it sideways on Google Earth so that I could zoom in farther to get a more closeup view of how winding the river is... sometimes you actually go north to get south because it's so curly! Basically all of the springs are upstream or somewhere near the 20 bridge (wayy at the top of the map... the rest was the 1.5 hours of hard core fast paddling to make it to the take-out point semi-on time).

Overall, it was an exciting weekend of springs exploring, but I have since realized that this area of the Panhandle is as spring-rich as the areas around Gainesville (if not more so), so I have become obsessed with returning and exploring some of the others. The Chipola Diver's website is a great resource for getting more information on diveable springs in the area. Between this trip and the last, I have been to many of them but could certainly use a few more weekends to check out the rest... hopefully in the near future. I think Wakulla (near Tallahassee) is the next first magnitude to be checked off my list... and then some other smaller springs in Mill Pond, Holmes Creek, Leon Sinks State Park. So many springs to see, so little time.

#12 Weeki Wachee Spring: Where the mermaids swim!

On my birthday eve (10/10/12), for the first time since our May 19 snorkel at Madison Blue Spring, I dove into a NEW first magnitude spring! The summer brought many ocean adventures in the Gulf of Mexico, Bahamas, and back home in Massachusetts, and since August I have been either diving in new non-first magnitude springs or continuing to explore and photograph repeat springs. There's always something new to see, so this could keep me busy for years, but swimming in a new spring is always exciting. Of the fifteen or so first magnitude springs  remaining on my short list, Weeki Wachee was on the "this will be hard to dive" list along with several other springs on private property / accesible only by boat. Anyway, Weeki Wachee Spring, recently designated as a state park, is about 2 hours southwest of Gainesville and while you can swim in a tiny, shallow section of the spring basin off to the side, diving in the main mermaid basin is restricted to dive shops and organizations with special permission. Thankfully, Wednesday was my lucky day as NASE had a permit to dive in the main basin to shoot more footage for their training videos. We previously shot at a pool in Ocala, but for the open water portion of the shooting, why not swim where the mermaids swim? I certainly wasn't going to question that decision :) 

1/2 and 1/2 shot of the main basin. The mermaid shows take place just below the big building visible in the back right with the sloping brown roofs and blue sides. There is an underwater stage in front of a whole line of picture windows for people sitting inside the comfort of the building's indoor auditorium to look underwater out into the spring basin and watch the mermaids swim. It was a truly magical place. And the flow coming out of the main spring vent was very strong. There is a whole cave system if you enter where the water is so swiftly bursting from the ground, but it is off limits and known to be one of the most dangerous caves.

Another view of the main basin looking in the opposite direction of the 1/2 and 1/2 picture above. The blue floats in the back right are the floats at the water line in the middle of the first picture. The water slides in the background are part of the park but were not open when we were there - during the off-season, the water park is only open on weekends.

We were greeted not only by Allen, the mermaid trainer and world-record holder for the longest continuous ocean dive, but also by a whole slew of wild peacocks! There were several roaming around the park and hanging out where you least expected. Even after a whole day of seeing them everywhere, I was still surprised every time one wandered by and checked out our dive gear...

We completed 3 dives in the brilliant crystal clear water throughout the day to get footage for the NASE training video. Every hour or two, we took a break so that the mermaids could perform their shows for park visitors. And during our last break we took a stroll over to the underwater auditorium and watched a bit of the show!

Demonstrating sharing air.

Scott and I swimming through the main basin.

Floating in the sun over the underwater stage during the last dive of the day... getting ready to do one of the last skills. These underwater shots are all frame grabs from Jim's video footage taken with his amazing Red Epic camera - all 3 of these underwater diving photos are (c) Valeo Films Inc. 2012.

According to Allen, the mermaid shows take place all year long. He requires that all mermaids are SCUBA certified and trains those that are not certified before they start doing shows at Weeki Wachee - this is important for buoyancy control and learning to breathe off of the hoses scattered throughout the basin, which he likens to breathing off a free-flowing second stage. This is not an easy feat, especially at high pressure. There are about 15 mermaids and there are usually 3 shows per day, sometimes more. Lightning is the only thing that will cancel a show, and Halloween is one of their biggest days... they even have an 11pm show! Below are views of their stage from the underwater auditorium. When we first arrived, there were sunfish and mullet swimming throughout the basin, reminding us that despite the windows and mystical mermaids, it is still a natural spring:

A beautiful show of air bubbles during the mermaid show :) 

On our way over to check out the show, we found the entrance to the main basin that the mermaids use. It is a 60 foot swim from here to the main basin and most do it without a mask - thankfully for the mermaids there are air hoses in the underwater tube just in case they don't take a big enough breath at the ladder.

Tails and sequins?! Not your typical diving locker room. 

This is the sign above the hallway going down into the underwater auditorium. Love it!! 

Slack-ing

We drove south (then east) until the Gators game was fuzzy on every station. Then we drove for a bit longer. While it's sometimes fun to take part in the crazy Gator game day festivities, there is definitely something to be said for an escape to the more remote springs on a beautiful Saturday. The trip to Alexander took about two hours - basically the first hour is south on 441 then the second hour is east on 40 through the National Forest until you reach its farthest southeast corner. This was my third or fourth trip to Alexander, but I will never get sick of it, and this time was exciting for many reasons, namely that it was Stephanie's first spring dive :)

As we pulled up for an afternoon dive/snorkel, we were welcomed by a crowded parking lot. After checking out the spring, we suited up at the car and walked down in all of our gear, which meant that we certainly did not have any trouble diving into the refreshing 72 degree water to escape the September heat. It's hard to imagine that everyone is turning on the heat and breaking out the sweaters back home in New England!

Stephanie in the main basin. Unfortunately, there were about a dozen other divers in the basin... the rest being open water students doing a great job of stirring up the bottom. The basin has always been crystal clear in the past, but the suspended algae and sand didn't seem to bother somebody used to diving in low vis lakes and salt water :)

As we dove below (in an absolute maximum of a whole 24 feet of water), Greg snorkeled above... probably a smart move to avoid all of the divers at the bottom -and it made for some cool swimming-in-the-sky pictures! 

After checking out the basin, we ended up spending over half of the dive in the shallows... definitely snorkeling territory, but still a blast. There were many friendly bluegill like this one as well as 2 turtles, bass, and quite a few little minnows.

Tight squeeze! This is Stephanie swimming for the stairs after a great dive... sunny blue skies above :) This is also just about the time when a few little kids got really excited (as we casually dove in 3 feet of water) and started marveling and exclaiming "Cool!! Divers!".

Up until this point, I guess we hadn't been slacking, as the title of this post implies. But there's still more to come. Greg just happened to have his slackline in his backpack, so we found two trees next to our picnic table and tried (quite unsuccessfully) this awesome new tightrope-like walking/balancing/falling act... needless to say, it's 100% addicting!

Greg tried it out first - and gave us some pointers on how to stand on a stretchy 3" moving line between two trees... not as easy as he makes it look...

Hands UP!

This is how all of my attempts inevitably ended... although I suppose it could have ended worse... And maybe next time, I'll consider bringing better slacklining attire.

 After becoming thoroughly addicted to slack-ing and getting many funny looks from other spring-goers, some afternoon clouds and the threat of rain scared everybody out of the park. We decided to hang around for a cool-down snorkel, which ended up being a great decision! With the whole spring to ourselves, we spent about a half hour freediving in the now clear and undisturbed water. It seemed like a new place and I was excited that Stephanie got to see it like this instead of just hear about "how beautiful and clear it usually is" secondhand from me. Near the end, the sun even peeked out from behind the clouds... perfect end to a great day :)