Sarah and I recently took a short trip to Ocala, Florida, to visit Silver Springs - "Florida's Original Natural Attraction".	Silver Springs Celebrates its 125th Anniversary
Silver Springs and its crystal clear waters have been a famous tourist destination since the mid-1800's.
Silver Springs' World Famous Glass Bottom Boats	In 1878, Hullam Jones invented the first glass bottom boat that gave visitors a unique view of life beneath the clear spring water. Today, the glass bottom boats are still a unique part of the Silver Springs experience.
Hollywood discovered that Silver Springs' clear water was excellent for filming underwater scenes, and many, many movies and TV shows were filmed there, including six of the original Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, several James Bond films, and more than 100 episodes of the TV series Sea Hunt starring Lloyd Bridges.
Silver Springs: "The Underwater Filming Capital of the World"
Sarah and I had a wonderful day at Silver Springs. We rode the glass bottom boats and marvelled at the clarity of the water and the wildlife observed beneath (we also got a bit dizzy from looking down as the boat spun in circles!). We also saw memorabilia left behind from some of the movies filmed at Silver Springs, like sunken boats and statues. We took a ride on the Jeep Safari and saw more wildlife on land: monkeys and deer and alligators and enormous tortoises and a llama (one of Sarah's favorite animals). I got to see a river otter, my favorite animal, in action. And Sarah got to feed a giraffe. Both Sarah and I love the nostalgia and charm of old-time attractions like Silver Springs. It was quaint, peaceful, charming and fun... none of the frantic and overwhelming pace of the bigger, more modern attractions.	Click any of the pictures below to see a larger image:
Click here to see video of David & Sarah at Silver Springs: Lower Quality Video (729kb) Higher Quality Video (5.76mb)
Click here to visit the Silver Springs website
Posted: 6/25/2004