Nick’s 31st brought us to northern Florida to swim with the manatees. It was about a four hour drive to get there from Englewood. It didn’t help that we got caught in a fair amount of traffic on I-75. We had originally packed a sandwich to eat for lunch but Nick mentioned that he was anxious to try some seafood. One of my co-workers had mentioned to me a place to try in Homosassa called The Freezer. When I put it on the GPS it showed that it was right on the water and we were on our way.
The restaurant was down a few back roads. It felt like we were out in the farm country of Florida. Upon pulling up to the place it was very unassuming. The only way I could tell we were there was seeing others park and walk in! You walk into a dingy bar that has high tops and chairs that are ripped and torn. A lot of the tables were vacant but still had dirty glasses and plates on them. Nick and I milled around awkwardly, not quite knowing what to do or where to go to order. We first stood in a line at the bar that said ‘Order Here’ at the bar. But then a worker came by and announced that we only needed to stand in that line if we were eating outside, if we were eating inside sit at a table and a server would come to you. It was a bit grey and windy outside so I initially wanted to stay in. So Nick and I took a seat at a railing looking out over the marina. The menus are simple and posted on the wall. They had things such as fish dip, chowder, fish sandwiches and shrimp. They only serve domestic beer and wine which was fine by us.
We sat at that spot for what must have been ten minutes. It looked like there was only one server, one bartender and one busser/food runner on the floor. And they all looked like they were overwhelmed and didn’t quite know how to keep up. We were hungry and getting edgy. The line at the bar had died down and Nick said ‘Forget about it. We can either wait here for Lord knows how long or we can order and go outside’. I agreed with him.
We approached the bartender and asked how she was doing. ‘Oh you know. Just living the dream.’ She drawled, clearly not caring much about what was going on. We ordered a salmon fish dip, clam chowder served in a bread bowl and a half order of the peel and eat shrimp. And of course a pitcher of Coors Lite to wash it down. The bartender took our payment, gave us a number and our pitcher and we headed outside to take a seat. j
They have high top tiki tables and picnic tables. Our food came before we were able to drink half of our first beer.

Upon just looking at the shrimp I knew that we were in for a treat. They looked fresh and tossed in Old Bay, simple and good. They were cooked to perfection, by someone who has obviously made a lot of shrimp before and know how delicate they can be. The chowder was piping hot and from someone who has spent four summers in New England this could have won at a chowder festival.

We enjoyed our lunch while throwing pieces of bread to the two resident squirrels. They were rather large and obviously used to people. They would sit by our table and beg for food. The shrimp we had here was probably the best food we had on the whole trip.
Our stop here put us only about twenty minutes away from Crystal River. Upon driving into the town I was instantly smitten. It was a quaint place, not much development and it was obviously not over run by snow birds or tourists. We stayed at a hotel called Resort at Crystal Manatee. It was only about $85 after all taxes and fees and I was pleasantly surprised with the room. It was completely updated, had a small sitting area and one of the most comfortable beds I have experienced in a while. There was a small breakfast room adjacent to check in and they served coffee and small snacks like cookies and crackers 24/7 there.
We were within walking distance to our dinner spot The Crab Plant. This was a restaurant with an adjoining seafood market. We had a late and big lunch so we were planning on keeping dinner light. Their specialty is obviously crabs. The large 10 top sitting behind us ordered the crab and it came out in buckets, they gave you a wooden hammer to break them apart and away you went, striving to get the delicious meat inside. We ordered a sampler dinner to share.

It included shrimp, crawdads, littleneck clams, mussels, sausage, potatoes and one blue crab. I got a side of fried okra and it was some of the best I have ever had. It was crunchy on the outside and soft and flavorful on the inside. The clams and crawdads were delicious. Crawdads are kind of like crabs, you have to do a lot of work to get to their meat but it is quite a treat. We went back to our hotel and got to bed early. We had a 7AM manatee tour the next morning!
I woke up so early to go on this tour because I was excited. We had to be at the tour company by 6:45 to watch an informational movie and get into our wet suits. We were there by 6:30 because I think I was driving Nick crazy with all my energy. I chose the company Fun2Dive based on their reviews and price point. They were also only a block and a half from our hotel. We paid to go on a semi private 3 hour tour. Our tour group ended up consisting of just 5 people.
After the movie and squeezing into a wet suit we were loaded into vans and heading down to the dock. We boarded a small pontoon boat and were on our way towards the springs and the manatees. It was a short boat ride, only about ten minutes. And before the boat even made it’s first stop our guide was pointing out disturbances in the water, telling us these were manatee mating pods. You would see a tail or a nose occasionally. He told us you would not want to get close to that as the manatees are moving so much with no regard for you they could knock you around. We found a quieter place in the water and we took our turns going down the ladder and into the water. The air temperature was a little chilly for Florida, in the high 60s. But the water remains a constant 72.
Immediately after getting off the boat our guide told us to gather round, there was a manatee right in front of him. I reached out and touched one for the first time. They are smooth where the mossy algae grows on their skin. The manatee in front of us rolled onto her belly to receive pets. They are friendly and curious animals, many times coming up to investigate you. They’ll hang out for a little while then will dive deep or head off somewhere else. There were manatee everywhere in this water. We could still see the mating herds and were keeping our distance from those but there must have been about 8 other individual manatee that came to check us out. They would come and chew on the rope that was holding the anchor, you would be swimming and suddenly run into one. The water we were in was dark and it was difficult to see them until you were right on top of them. The first spot where we went swimming I was honestly a little uncomfortable. I have never been much of a strong swimmer and it was a little unsettling to have such a large animal swimming next to me and I can’t even see them.
Our captain asked if we wanted to go to a different location and we all gave a resounding yes. He took us into Three Sisters Springs and I could immediately see a difference in the water. It was a clear blue and easy to see directly to the bottom. The manatee were easy to observe in this water and we saw dozens of them.

We even saw a mom and baby resting on the bottom. There were a few playful ones that wanted to come up and say hello. Some of them wanted belly rubs.

One of my dive companions even had a mantee try to unzip her wet suit. They are quite playful.

This was my favorite part of the dive. It was easy to just float and observe them, watch them swim by, give them a pet if they came to look for it. They are incredibly gentle creatures and this swim was everything I thought it was going to be. I could have stayed in that spring with them for hours. But unfortunately our tour ended and besides that I was freezing at this point! When I got back on the boat I was shaking like crazy and the cup of hot chocolate they provided was much appreciated.
We got back to the tour company by 10AM and Nick and I ran to our hotel to take a quick shower and check out. We walked around the small downtown to purchase a few souvenirs and then with some sadness we were on our way, heading down to Sarasota where we would be spending the night before heading home.
After doing some quick internet research we decided to try a place near Tampa called Molly Goodheads. They were supposed to have great seafood and beer. Two of our favorite things. I knew we made a good decision as soon as we walked in the door. It looks like the kind of place that a local is going to come to have some oysters and drink the day away. Our server was incredibly friendly and upon learning this was our first time at the restaurant she gave us some killer recommendations.

We got fried grouper nuggets (after being assured the grouper comes in nearly daily) and ahi tuna served in a martini glass. They were both delightful and well worth the wait to have lunch. The tuna was perfectly seared with a sesame crusting and was mixed with a wasabi cream dressing and seaweed salad. The grouper was fried to perfection but you were still able to easily taste the fish underneath. The only problem with going to this place was trying to make it out of Tampa! The traffic was awful.
We made it to Sarasota in time to see the sunset. We typically like to go to a restaurant called Monk’s Steamer Bar. But we wanted to try something different and went to a place called Walt’s Fish Market and Restaurant. The place was packed and we had difficulty even finding parking. I had high hopes for the place due to the volume. It was a 45 minute wait for a table on a Wednesday night but we were lucky enough to find seats at the bar. The first off putting thing I noticed was the smell. It was like wet, dirty feet. They served us complimentary fish dip upon sitting down and this was rather tasteless and unremarkable. Dinner we just split a fried plate of shrimp, oysters and grouper. This was served with a side of fried okra that was mushy and taste of a nasty fryer. All in all this place was a disappointment and I would not be back. There was not a single thing on the menu that really caught my attention and made me say Wow!