Weekly Update for January 25, 2026

Welcome to my weekly update for January 25, 2026! I hope all of you in the path of this winter storm are warm and safe. The Appalachians broke up the storm in weird ways in North Carolina and luckily my family ended up mostly getting rain instead of the devastating ice that was in the forecast. I know lots of places were not as lucky.

On Thursday, we had a very Florida day. We’re pretty close to some of the beautiful springs where manatees huddle up when the waters of the Gulf of Mexico get too cold for them so we decided to drive up and take a look. The visitor’s center at Three Sisters Springs estimated that there were 250 manatees there the day we went! We took my sister snorkeling with them back in 2019 but it was very late in the season and the river was murky so we barely saw anything. That was not the case on Thursday. Even from land we could see how many there were!

In the afternoon we went to Weeki Wachi Springs State Park, which has been a tourist attraction since 1947. They’re most famous for their mermaid show. The ABC television network owned the springs for a while before it became a state park. They built an underwater amphitheater in the side of the spring. Visitors can watch women dressed as mermaids swim around in dances choreographed to music (they even lip sync!) and watch some pretty neat tricks as they drink a bottle of something and eat a banana or other piece of fruit underwater. They each swim with an air hose so they can breathe without going up to the surface. I’m not a good swimmer at all so the whole thing fascinated me. The show is a little dated now but it was fun to see a performance with such a long history. We also watched a ranger give a talk about animals in the park, like gopher tortoises, red-bellied sliders, pine snakes (I’m phobic but I made it through that part), and alligators. She was a very engaging speaker so we enjoyed her presentation. We would have taken a boat ride on the river but the water level has been too low since mid-December. There’s a water park too but we weren’t interested in that.

Slideshow:

All images © Jennifer G. at Introverted Reader 2026

1. Three Sisters Springs
2. All the manatees huddled together where Three Sisters Springs empties into the Crystal River. Kayakers and snorkelers are not allowed to go behind the rope. The manatees can go past it but most of them were obviously happy in their own space on this morning.
3. The “mermaids” performing in the underwater amphitheater. The one in the middle was sort of a ringmaster so she had a different costume.

Posted:

The Secret, Book & Scone Society (#1) by Ellery Adams, read by Cris Dukehart: Book Review–4 Stars

Best. State. Ever.: A Florida Man Defends His Homeland by Dave Barry: Book Review–4 Stars

Read:

All links in this section go to my reviews on GoodReads.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow–4.5 Stars

Firekeeper’s Daughter (Firekeeper’s Daughter #1) by Angeline Boulley, read by Isabella Star LaBlanc–4 Stars

Fairest of All (Villains #1) by Serena Valentino–3 Stars

Currently Reading:

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 (Dead Djinn Universe #0.3) by P. Djèlí Clark

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Yong

Above Ground: Poems by Clint Smith

Up Next:

I truly don’t know but I should finish Haunting and Above Ground soon. I also need a new audiobook.

What did your week look like?

Hosts:

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz hosts The Sunday Salon and Kimberly at Caffeinated Book Reviewer hosts Sunday Post. Kathryn at Book Date hosts It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

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