DeLeon Springs State Park & Old Spanish Sugar Mill Restaurant

*Note: if you view this via email or a feed reader, I don’t think the last post loaded correctly, the Forest Friday post. There’s a video in it and it wasn’t automatically syncing to play unless you went to the website to read. I do recommend going back and clicking through to watch the video because Forest is super cute as he explains his drawing.*

Before our trip to Florida I saw Florida Hikes post about the Old Spanish Sugar Mill restaurant in DeLeon Springs State Park. Since Chris had wanted to visit some of the springs in the state during our time before Disney, I thought this sounded like a great place to go. I figured since we were going during the middle of the week that the wait wouldn’t be too bad and if it was we could take the boat tour on the lake while we were waiting.

As luck would have it, clouds began gathering as we made our way inland. By the time we arrived to the state park it had started raining and Forest had fallen asleep. Not wanting to wake him unnecessarily, I went in to see about the wait and get our name on the list if there was a wait. Inside, I found the place fairly busy for a Wednesday, and despite the rain there were people still swimming in the spring pool out front. We had to wait about 20 or 30 minutes which left plenty of time for Forest to rest a bit before we went in for lunch.

I loved the restaurant, it was really a fun experience! Aside from items like burgers and fries, you pretty much cook everything yourself at the table. I know, you could cook this at home, but its about ambiance and experience, right? I chose breakfast for lunch and Chris got a burger while Forest opted for his usual jelly sandwich. Yep, no peanut butter. The rain continued falling outside and even after our lunch experience we had to figure out what we were going to do. Our plans had been to do some hiking and maybe even swimming at the state park, possibly take the boat tour.

But the rain thwarted those plans. So, we made our way over to the covered picnic tables to wait the rain out a bit and to scope out their small museum. The rain wasn’t letting up so we ended up leaving the state park earlier than intended, opting to head west to Ocala National Forest for an afternoon drive.

Maybe some day we will return to the state park, however I’m glad we got to dip in for a minute to see a bit of historical Florida!

More information:
DeLeon Springs State Park: Florida State Parks website
DeLeon Springs State Park: Florida Hikes
DeLeon Springs State Park: Florida Rambler