Ryan, Debi, and Toren Cragun's Blog

Debi’s mother and brother came to visit us over the holidays and we decided to go on some adventures.  Included on the itinerary was Weeki Wachee State Park, which is most famous for its mermaids.  It was, undoubtedly, an interesting experience.  The park is rather rundown and definitely not of the caliber of either an amusement park or a state park.  But it does have “mermaids” – well, kind of.  Here’s what they mean by mermaids:

The tank where they are diving is actually Weeki Wachee Spring, which is a hot spring that releases water that is 74 degrees year round.  A Navy frogman (precursor to the SEALS) came up with the idea, and before EPA regulations would have prevented such a thing, he sunk a theater into the spring and started doing “mermaid” shows.  The shows aren’t very good.  Rather than hire synchronized swimmers, who would be very good, it seems like all the “merpeople” (there was a guy, too) are local.  They kind of swim together, but they aren’t particularly talented.

Aside from the mermaid shows, there is a boat ride on the river out of the springs that is okay, but the rest of the park isn’t much to look at.  They do have a waterpark there that may be more fun in the summer.  Someone really needs to update the place, but I’m guessing none of the big players want anything to do with it because of the environmental regulations and age of the place (I doubt they can do much to rehab the theater).

Anyway, it was definitely worth going, though I’m not sure I’ll be going back.  Oh, and the best part… On the way out of the second show we watched, Steve, Debi’s brother, overheard some people talking.  The last number the mermaids swam to was “God Bless the USA,” which was particularly odd considering there were international tourists there.  As we walked out, one guy said to his companions, “Well, at least we know they are American Mermaids and not Muslims.”  Apparently he thinks you can’t be American AND Muslim!  Idiot American!

We don’t know where he picked it up – we think daycare – but Toren has been saying the word “booty” nonstop for the last month.  Everything is “booty-this” or “booty-that.”  When we ask him what “booty” means he says “bum,” but he never uses it in that context.  So, he’ll say things like, “booty pillow dordy” or “booty spaghetti bowl.”  It doesn’t make any sense.  But occasionally it’s funny, like when he said, “I love the booty” over and over:

Well, Toren, you’re not alone.  Lots of people love them some booty.

Debi took Toren to Busch Gardens in November while I was away at a conference and he sat on Santa’s lap.  At that time, he told Santa he wanted two things for Christmas: a bug catcher net and a robot.  So, planning ahead, I bought him a bug catching net and Debi bought him Iron Man (okay, not a robot, but close enough).  Of course, two days or so before Christmas he changed his mind and said he wanted a T-Rex and Buzz Lightyear.  Yeah, Santa had already made his purchases.  So, bug catcher net it was.

He liked the net enough to go right out and try to catch something with Debi and Uncle Steve:

A short time after this, the neighbor brought over a gift form him: a safari jacket and safari tools.  Toren was perfectly outfitted for catching bugs.  Hopefully we’ve got a budding biologist on our hands.

I’ve filmed Toren climbing the nets a bunch of times at Busch Gardens.  But this time I convinced him to climb to the top of the nets:

Toren called for us one day because he said he was stuck in his toybox. He wasn’t; he just thought he was being funny, until he realized he might be breaking his toys: