Day 8: DeFuniak Springs, FL (Rest Day)

Enjoying Florida's tallest waterfall

This post is overdue from yesterday (March 9). Mom and I really took advantage of our first rest day!! We slept in a little, did some organizing of our fundraiser, and then grabbed a quick pizza lunch special at Hungry Howie's before heading back east to Chipley, FL to visit Florida's tallest waterfall in Falling Waters State Park. It was starting to rain a little when we got there, but that didn't stop us from enjoying a mile or two of hiking before visiting the interesting, but rather small waterfall. The waterfall falls down into a sinkhole, which was definitely something we had never seen before. After leaving the park we headed to tour historic DeFuniak Springs, FL. It really is quite a cool town and the historic district is situated around a small lake. The houses were really beautiful and we enjoyed a nice walk around the perimeter of the lake.

Lake DeFuniak

We were pretty tired after all of the walking and hiking, so we decided to head back to the hotel. As we were pulling in we noticed, right beside our hotel, and adjacent to Interstate-10, a sign for Chautauqua Vineyards. It was impossible to resist, so we headed over and, sure enough, they had a fully functioning vineyard right there by the interstate. And it was packed with tourists. We went on a quick tour, saw the wine-making vats, and then saddled up to the tasting table. When all was said and done we had tasted over 10 wines as well as a port, a vanilla sherry, and some sort of frozen wine cooler thing. Florida is not an optimal grape growing climate, so they only grew one type of grape, muscadine, and bought all the others from producers in other parts of the US.

Cheers!

The wine was fairly good, and the price was right. We bought a decent bottle of white wine made from local grapes for $7. We ended our day with a great meal at Bogey's, the restaurant inside the Hotel DeFuniak. We both had yummy fish dishes and we definitely recommend the restaurant. All in all we finished up the day rested and ready to tackle the next week of our adventure!