North Florida Nesties
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Silver Springs / Ocala
Visiting from the Pittsburgh Board, I know this is probably more for the Central FL board, but that board is very dead, vs you guys who are pretty active.
Has anyone been to the Silver Springs Nature Theme Park in Ocala? What were your thoughts if you have been there? We are considering a move to Ocala for my husbands job (he would be working at Silver Springs Park) and wanted to see if anyone had any opinions on the park or area they could give us.
TIA
Re: Silver Springs / Ocala
I've been there many times and I've always loved it. The animal enclosures are more nature preserve like and I really like that. One time when I was younger an alligator actually ate some type of deer/gazelle animal because the river was one of the "walls" to that area. That may sound awful, but that's sort of real animal life, right? They have boardwalks towards the back that go out into the river and this lake area. All the alligatorss there are awesome and you're basically right on top of them Because its not part of the enclosed areas. So cool.
The glass bottom boats are fun and the spring is just beautiful, if I wasn't so afraid of caves I would take a dive trip there. Just a little FYI, the spring is part of an under ground system that covers most of Florida.
I haven't been in a couple years so I'm sure it's grown, the last time I was there the themey area was just starting and it was fun for little kids.
I don't know if it's because my first job was at the local zoo, but if I had a job offer at Silver Springs that was worth it, I would take it.
ETA: Now I'm second guessing if you wanted info on the park or the town. If its just the town, I really have no idea except that I stop there often on my annual trip to the Keys because it's half way. It's grown in the last couple of years, but like LB said, it's still pretty rural. If you didn't want info on the park itself, sorry!
Ditto on the rural area, but it depends on your interest. Ocala is one of the main capitals of thoroughbred horse farms and quite a few celebrities (the Travoltas for one) have hidden places around there. It is also not a bad drive to places like Orlando, which is certainly more urban and there's plenty to do and shop for there. Ocala itself, though, is more of an old fashioned Florida town that hasn't grown up into the modern world. That has its charm or it can seem soul sucking, depending on your perspective.
Silver Springs is beautiful and I'm sure you know about the history there, but Tarzan was filmed there as well as Creature from the Black Lagoon. The monkeys there are descendants of the Tarzan ones and just keep living there. It's one of the few places left where Florida seems 'true' to itself. It isn't at all like Disney where it's all upbeat and loud and frenetic. It's verrrrrry slowwwwwww. People just rest and relax and take in the scenery. The visitors are mostly grandparents or older people with the grandkids. Also it's next to the water park, which used to be the bomb diggity, but isn't all that happening now that the major ones in Orlando have expanded.
My advice is, take a weekend and go there. Poke around, wander the town, visit the park, and see what you think. The charm may really appeal to you and you might love it. Or, you might really not. Everyone feels differently about it.