Florida Wedding Trip Day 1 (Bronson, Chiefland, Manatee Springs)

I'm back! (Well, sort of.) We extended our trip for an extra day, so I still haven't finished unpacking all of the kitchenware and stuff we took down for the reception, plus I've loads of laundry to do and I have to figure out if I'm crafty enough to dry some flowers from the arrangements and/or my bouquet. Then we're off to North Carolina this weekend to visit my elderly grandparents and my aunt & uncle. Here is a little teaser of our trip, the first 24 hours in Florida. I don't really have any actual wedding pics to share yet, as none were taken with my digital. We will spend the next few weeks gathering photos and video from our family, and having our black and whites that my sister-in-law took with my SLR developed. Anyway, I'll intersperse the trip posts with some design posts (as I have steered my so-called "design" blog way off course). Pic below: Manatee Springs (more on this later).
The Levy County Courthouse in the tiny town of Bronson. Charming place to pick up your marriage license, isn't it?
Intriguing eclectic junk/antique shop that The Boy (excuse me, now "Mr. Cottage Cheese") was a little scared to go into. Next time, I'm going in with or without him. Who knows what treasures lie within?
We ate at the Lady Luck Cafe, which seemed fitting for the day. A picture of Mr. Luck (presumably no longer with us) sat by the cash register. He looked exactly like Captain Kangaroo.
We spent our first night here. Kidding. We stayed on Cedar Key the whole trip and just drove back inland for the first day to get the license and swim the springs. But I love old motel signs, so I had to get a pic.
The swimming hole, and origin of the blue hole at Manatee Springs. The water is crystal clear and cold (72 degrees F year round). What looks like algae is actually the rock on the bottom. The water in the springs makes one quite bouyant, and there is a strong current. One of the highlights of my trip was weightlessly floating on my back from one end of the spring to the other, looking up at the bird nests and Spanish Moss in the cypress trees and the beautiful (though cloudy) sky. We were lucky enough to have the springs (almost) to ourselves this day.
The spring run to the Suwannee River. The water is still very clear at this point, and you can see all kinds of fish and turtles swimming (though perhaps not in this pic).
Another view of the spring run.
The Suwannee River (made famous by this song) is really wide at this point. There are 200-300 pound sturgeon that jump and make a huge splash. Quite a sight to see!
Resurrection Ferns growing in a Live Oak tree alongside the spring. They dry up between rains and turn brown and dry. When it rains they turn lush and green, almost overnight.
This little fawn at Manatee Springs seemed to be intrigued by us. She was with about 7 other deer, most of whom ran off when we pulled the car over. It was such a lovely goodbye as we left the spring and ventured on to the island for the rest of the trip.
So that was day 1 of the wedding trip. For some reason my pics weren't so great on day 1 (perhaps the rain and mist in the air was a factor). If these don't float your boat, I have lots of island pics coming over the next week. There are so many of them, it will take a while for me to get organized!