Living Water Boat Tour of the Chain of Lakes of Winter Haven

 Today we had reservations with the Living Water Boat Tour for a two-hour boat ride on the chain lakes of Winter Haven.  We picked up John at 9:15 and drove to the dock where the tour would begin.  It was a beautiful day.  There was a nice wind blowing so it was fairly cool.  Our captain's name was Darrell and he made the tour very interesting with all the facts and history he shared with us.

Waiting for the tour to begin.

Waiting for the tour to begin.

The pontoon boat on which we took the tour.

I don't know who's fishing set up this is but it looks like he will be very comfortable as he fishes.

There are many canals connecting the lakes.  This one connects Lake Howard with Lake Cannon.  The Pope Family built Cypress Gardens which is known for its beautiful landscaped gardens and water ski show.  Julia Pope personally landscaped this canal as they lived on one side of the canal.  Most of the other canals we went through had no landscaping.

I am not sure if this house was owned by the Pope Family or if it is the house on the other side of the canal from them.  Anyway, Bert Reynolds and Loni Anderson owned the house across from the Pope's.  The house just recently sold for the paltry  amount of $850,000.  Not much to own a house that Bert Reynolds lived in!

These are the steps from the bridge across the canal to the Pope Family Home.  The landscaping was beautiful.

More of the beautiful landscaping Julie Pope had planted.

The man who invented frozen concentrate for juices lived in this house.

White Heron.  We saw many of these birds.

An Anhinga.  These birds don't have a natural oil on their feathers to protect them from the water so after they dive into the water to fish, they have to stretch out their wings to dry before fishing again.

A better view of the canal Julia Pope landscaped.

A blue heron

This stone fence with the stone lions is one of the oldest homes built in the Winter Haven area.  This is original fencing.

The lawn of this home had a metal French Bulldog sculpture.  It even has it's own fire hydrant.

One of the many beautiful homes on the lakes.

The water ski show is still performed daily on Lake Eloise at Legoland.  The picture above and below show one of the performers practicing for the show.

This is an osprey nest.  The parents had two babies.  

Cypress Gardens is now a part of Legoland.  This is the Legoland Pirate Ship used in the ski show.

Ramp used for the ski show.

It is hard to see but this swimming pool is shaped like the state of Florida.  It was built for Esther Williams to perform in and one of her movies was filmed around this pool.

This gorilla was used in some of the Tarzan movies that were filmed around the Winter Haven area.  After the movies were filmed, this guy was left to fend for himself on one of the island properties.

Another beautiful home we saw.

The original wedding gazebo at  Cypress Gardens.  Many weddings were performed in this gazebo.

Captain Darrell took this picture.  At least we are all smiling.

Captain Darrell filled my head with so much information that I was not able to retain it all.  However, John posted some of the really interesting stuff so I am going to copy it to my blog.

"There are 26 (28, depending on water level) lakes connected by canals.  The canals were begun in 1915 as a way to quickly transport fresh citrus to the train station in Haines City, In the 1920's Dick Pope Sr., and his wife Julia began promoting Winter Haven and the Chain of Lakes.  The Cypress Gardens brought not only beauty, but lots of Hollywood types to  Winter Haven.  Many parts of movies and TV shows were filmed at Cypress Gardens. It was also there that modern day water skiing came about.  What we know as water ski shows, stunts, and tricks all originated here in Winter Haven.  Many celebrities, including Elvis, Frank Sinatra, and King Hussein of Jordan learned to water ski on Lake Eloise.  In a beautiful home off Little Lake Eloise, process for concentrating orange juice was developed.  Lots of forgotten history in Winter Haven."

We ate lunch at Jazzy's Restaurant.  It was very good.  We even brought some back to camp with us.  We dropped John off at his house and drove to Bartow, Florida to find a Gander Mountain.  We found it and were able to purchase new tie-down straps for the tow dolly.  It was also a new part of Florida that we had not seen.  Back to camp by 4:00 and ready to relax.  Tomorrow we are going to Universal Islands of Adventure.  We have never been there.  

After supper we took at walk around the campground and snapped these sunset pictures.

I don't know what these plants are that are attaching themselves to this tree but I think it is pretty.

Day is done.  It is time to rest.