Under instructions from a younger sibling, we visited Wakulla Springs State Park southeast of Tallahassee. Wakulla Springs is the largest freshwater spring in the United States, producing more fresh water on a good day than the city of New York consumes. A financier and brother-in-law of Alfred DuPont, Edward Ball, established it as a wildlife sanctuary and built an incredible lodge in the 1930s and it did not become a state park until the 1980s. It was the site of scenes in several motion pictures, including a couple of Tarzan movies, Airport 77, and that classic which will be remembered by my generation of pre-Boomers, The Creature from the Black Lagoon.
The lodge features the longest marble-topped soda fountain in the world and interesting Mediterranean Revival architecture. They have guest rooms and a dining room open to the public where we had a delicious lunch. But this visit was a 'creature feature' in more ways than one. We took a boat ride on the Wakulla River, guided by a very knowledgeable ranger, on which sightings of a variety of birds, turtles, and alligators were so frequent, Disney couldn't have done a better job, and ending with the creek that was the home of the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
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