Oct

Exploring Trails: Mermaid March

Naeli with “Liquid Metal” by Darin Woods.

September is a highly anticipated month for all Merfolks of San Marcos! The Mermaid Capital of Texas Fest is a fun family-friendly event we all look forward to every year. The parade is filled with music and all-embracing floats, rich in San Marcos history and river culture. The parade fills you with the true San Marcos spirit! During this month we enjoy creating eco-friendly crowns, penciling in all the fun events happening in the community, and pulling out our most colorful clothes from the closet to wear during the parade.

This truly touches on the magical childhood memories of days spent at Aquarena Springs watching dazzling Aquamaids underwater and squealing with excitement when Ralph the Swimming Pig came out. The glass bottom boat ride across Spring Lake is one of my favorites, which we still have today operated by the Meadows Center. I still ooh and aww seeing the springs bubbling up and exploring all the water life below.

“The Fish of the San Marcos Waterways”
by Doug Hiser

This year we participated in the Mermaid March, a public art project. This unique collection of Mermaids can be found all over town, and the March is a wonderful activity you and your family can enjoy together. We all guessed how many were around San Marcos, and learned there were a total of 10!!! We have run across a few of the beautifully decorated 7-foot-tall Mermaids around town; however, we were missing many more!! We decided to make a day of wandering with the goal of uncovering all these unique pieces of art.

I highly encourage you to embrace the march around town, locating all the enchanting works of art. Each Mermaid Guardian of the San Marcos River shares her unique story painted by talented local artists. We enjoyed reading the summaries of each Mermaid and her artist provided by the website. We got so excited to find them one by one in their special locations that we took time to study every part of their body, admiring the kaleidoscope of colors, analyzing each piece and engaging our imagination with each story. Some benefits that came from our march together was our family engagement, our youngest learning to read a map, discovering new artists, seeing the importance of preserving and protecting our ecosystem and learning about San Marcos history and culture.

This is a time to reflect on promoting stewardship of the San Marcos River, bringing awareness to our natural beauty and sharing in friendship and gratitude for it. A reminder to “Keep San Marcos Beautiful!”