1 hour 30 minutes paddling time, 2.2mph avg. speed
When we awoke, the rain had stopped, but everything was wet. We laid things out in an attempt to dry equipment. It was our last night of camping, and we had no choice to pack things away wet. But, it was easy to pack away camping stuff that was no longer needed.
We put in at KP City Park. It was windy, but we managed to paddle up river to the springs. Along the way we passed many kayaks, a rowing team and several divers; and Scotty saw a manatee at the bottom of the river. On the right of this river is the national park, and on the left are lots of residential homes with docks reaching out into the river. At the head springs, there is a park surrounding the water and there's a huge roped off swimming area. The water is a beautiful Caribbean blue and you can see far down to the bottom. Of course, the paddle down stream was very pleasant as the wind was now at our back and we reached the city park in no time. So we headed up the kayaks and headed west to the Gulf.
We got to Cedar Key about 1:00, but it was still windy and we didn't want to chance going over to the island. We walked around town, which has an old town Florida feel. There are plenty of local artist co-op shops, a sculpture garden, a central park, and plenty of seafood offerings. We headed over to Toni's which is known for it's clam chowder. We each had a cup of the delicious clam chowder; and I had a shrimp skewer and Scotty had a fish sandwich. We walked some more around town and down to the waterfront. We also went into the general store where an older woman told us much about Cedar Key. She is a life-long resident and she says there are only about 6 original families still there. There's a local school, K-12 with about 300 students. The city council closely monitors the buildings and the signage within the town. It's such a cool place. We got back to our hotel, Park Place Inn which is probably from the 70s or so. We had a corner unit with a wrap around balcony - just too cold to sit outside, but we could enjoy the view from the corner windows. We watched TV, had some wine and just enjoyed taking an indoor shower and sitting on furniture.
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| Attempting to dry out camping equipment. |
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| Such a beautiful city launch site. |
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| Suddenly, Scotty was surrounded by a row team. |
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