EASTER MORNING, early but not exactly sunrise - We took a walk for a couple of miles on the beautiful San Blas beach with the dogs. Few people, so no leashes and lots of swimming. Then we saw a pretty amazing thing. Small groups of dolphins we've seen all our lives, but these were perhaps two dozen fishing together right offshore. And they weren't just doing their come-up-take-a-breath-and-go-down thing. They were surfacing at unusual angles, splashing around and out of the water, and flapping their whale-like tails. Some kayakers paddled over to them, and we all just watched.

We agreed that the morning had been a fine Easter celebration.

Yesterday we went to Wakulla Springs. "A long drive but worth it," several people had told us, and they were right about both. Something happened at the Springs that reminded Gus of the summer he sold peaches for Lawton Ashe to Northerners headed down US 301 to Florida. They would pull over at Gus' fragrant peach stand, buy a basket, and quite often ask, "Where are the eDISto gardens?" And Gus would reply, "You just take this right turn, mam, and you'll be at EDisto Gardens." So, yesterday Gus asked something about WaCOOLa Springs. And the ranger answered his question about WaCULLa Springs. (Rhymes with McCullough, Cas and Clay!)

We usually associate springs as giving rise to rivulets or small streams, but the spring at Wakulla surfaces from an underground karst cavern that could house a large building and gushes forth hundreds of millions of gallons of water a day, so much that the result is not a spring at all but a full-blown river, the Wakulla. The area around the spring and on down the river has been well-protected in a Florida State Park and is a biological wonderland. We were happy to see some things we don't often spot: limpkin, yellow-crowned night heron, Suwannee cooter, wood duck, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon, still around after 60 years.

Pollution and warming have had an effect. Not long ago, the boat tours included glass bottom boats and one could see down over 100 feet. Those tours are quite rare these days, we were told. Gus teased a ranger there, a Florida state employee, about whether she could say "global climate change" given Governor Scott's ban on using the phrase! She laughed.

The beautiful Wakulla River heading out from the spring.

We took a tour of Apalachicola day before yesterday. Apalach, we learned to call it. It is a real town, chock full of fishing operators, art galleries, local businesses, and good restaurants. We found the Apalachicola Riverkeepers' offices, had some fresh shucked

oysters at Boss Oyster on the river, and finished the day with a world class meal (black grouper) at the Owl. There are not yet any fancy boutiques in Apalach, or even Gap, Old Navy or Target. It is still basically a funky fishing village that has found some supplemental things to do with pride, like art and careful restorations of older homes. But note the "not yet" above.

our driver

our passengers

the famous Owl

Not many Vermont license plates outside Boss Oyster!