As I post and you continue reading, you will notice a theme, we like the outdoors. Which was one of the various reasons we decided to fulltime. On our way home from the Itchnatucknee, my husband mentioned Rainbow Springs. Now Kurt was from the Citrus County area and had been to the spring may times, I on the other, had never even heard of it, so we took a detour. Rainbow Springs has a really cool history, it was a major tourist attraction between the 30's-70's. It had offered glass bottom boat rides, a zoo, a rodeo, man made waterfalls, gardens, and a leaf shaped monorail at tree level. Due to larger attractions, like all mom and pop places, it was forced to shut down, then in the mid 90's, it became a state park that now offers tubing, swimming, camping, canoes, and a good meal. One word of caution though, if you have small kids, make sure you have a floaty for them, it's really, really deep. It's no fun trying to keep a kid above water when your trying to do the same thing. There is a small area where kids can play, but we preferred swimming together. We did walk the grounds, where you can see remnants of it's past life, the beautiful water falls are still there as well as the tropical gardens, there are portions of the zoo and monorail system still there. All in all it was a great side trip, aren't they all? We went back a few more times with our friends who also enjoyed it. Admission is pretty cheap, it was like a dollar to swim when we were there, and the scenery is well worth it.
