Weeki Wachee State Park, home to Florida's most popular mermaids
It may seem like an odd thing to bill as a tourist attraction, but mermaids play a major part in bringing visitors to see
The park started the 1940s as the brainchild of a former Navy SEALS trainer-turned-entrepreneur. He started with a tiny stadium, submerged so that the audience could see into the nearby water. Within that water, a group of talented women would perform underwater ballet and other seemingly impossible feats, such as eating and drinking while submerged, for the benefit of the tourists. The mermaid show was so popular that the park really took off as a tourist spot and has since grown over the years to include many more entertainments than just the underwater variety.
While at Weeki Wachee, you can enjoy the local water park, Buccaneer Bay, visit the Misunderstood Creatures animal show, featuring birds and reptiles as the main stars, or check out any of the other sea life that make their homes in the park, such as manatees, turtles, otters and even the occasional alligator. Some other popular activities include cruises along the
Despite all these other entertainments, the mermaid shows are still the main draw. There are over a dozen women (and a few men as well) who perform underwater tricks, dances and even story ballets, complete with underwater scenery.
Weeki Wachee may not hold the same level of prestige it did 30 or 40 years ago, when it was a place of retreat for pop-icons, but it’s still a great place to visit. There has, thankfully, been a renewed interest in restoring the park to its former glory and bringing back the wonder that it once held. One can also find a variety of other things to do in the surrounding area by checking out the park’s web site. All-in-all, you could do much worse for a vacation in
Mermaid photo courtesy of Cape Leisure
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