Re: Manatees
The manatees are great! Have gone diving at Crystal River and Blue Spring several times. Swimming near manatees can be a lot of fun, but there's a couple of things to consider when doing so:
1. They are protected - contact with them (touching, feeding, etc.) can result in an unwanted experience with park rangers.
2. They are l a r g e. Once found myself between two who kept creeping closer and closer to the point where I had no way up-or-down (shallow water) and getting mashed between them was something I really didn't want to experience.
3. They are cute. They're like oversized couch-potato dogs who have no fear and move v e r y slowly.
4. They love warmer water, which is why Crystal River and Blue Spring (70-degree temp water spring-fed into area) are winter-time popular manatee haunts. Crystal River has them year-round, but Blue Spring is very seasonal.
For those who don't SCUBA, snorkling at both locations is fine. The water at 66-70 degrees can seem pretty chilly for some of us (me in particular) so some kind of wetsuit (polartec is okay) may be desirous.
Crystal River has a couple of decent seafood restaurants in the area as well.
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