Beach Day at Fred Howard Park

 Today we drove west over to the golf and spent the day at Fred Howard Park. This is a man-made island just off the coast of Tampa in the golf. There are 155 acres and there’s even a kayak trail here we weren’t able to Kai EXO as the tide was low. Apparently you’re able to kayak through the marshes under the mangroves and out into the gulf. We did have a really enjoyable day sitting and watching the beach happenings. It was really fun watching the kite surfers, and we were just amazed at their ability to go back-and-forth and even to get the kite up, the girls were quite aggressive here and we watched as it went after snacks in some peoples bags when they left their chairs. Scotty even observed some goals opening a Chick-fil-A bag (again when people left their chairs empty) and the gulls ate all their chick fillet nuggets. We moved to the north side of the island where it was calmer so that I could log into my photography class for the beautiful classroom setting. The temperature this day was in the low 70s beautiful beach day and Scotty was able to snorkel some while I was in class.

Kayaking - Alafia River

 We had thought about paddling 12 miles down the Alafaya River, and Scotty left me at the Puddin at Aldermans Ford. While he was taking his bike down to the take out, a kayak or was getting out of the river with his boat, I talked with him and he said there was a large tree across the river, and it was not possible to take your kayak up on shore, but you had to go over the tree. That’s typically not a concern for us, but he did say there was an alligator nearby. That’s all I needed to hear and I called Scotty. He came back and we drove down to.Lithia Springs Park. There was a small but steep bank into the river and I stupidly let go of my kayak and it went down the bank and across the river quickly rather quickly. Fortunately, Scotty was already in the water and paddled over to rescue it. My hero, again. We kayaked 2 miles upstream and had our lunch under a bridge. The water here is brown from the trees, causing that tannic color. It really was a pretty paddle, and ironically, we never passed an alligator. Every once in a while a section of the river was hard to paddle as it was twisting or going around a downed tree. We paddled back to Lithia Springs, past the put in down to the springs. The springs were blocked off, but we could see the pretty clear water flowing out. We loaded up our kayaks in on the way out of the park. We drove over to the springs and waited in partly. It’s a popular spot as many people were enjoying the day there for dinner that night we met Scotty‘s friend from Iowa Todd and his wife, Joani, who live in St. Petersburg. They met us in Tampa at a restaurant called On Swan, and we had a very good dinner.

Kayaking - Hillsborough River

 Our campsite is one side over from the kayak launch here in the Hillsborough state park. We carried our kayaks over and took our kayaks down to kayak slide into the river. We turn to our right, which was going up river, and paddled for maybe half a mile until we got to a rocky area where it wasn’t possible to go any further. The water has that dark. Tanic look so lots of great reflections, and we passed lots of alligators along the far bank. We turned around and went down river, and then once again turned around to come back to the kayak launch, in total, we did about 4 1/2 miles in three hours. After lunch we headed over to Winn-Dixie where I got some cough syrup for my sore throat. I think when we turned on the air conditioner yesterday it affected me it’s really hot here today. The temperatures got up to 88°. So for the rest of the day we lounge chair and lounge chairs like true campers. 

Silver River

 We got on the river at 8:30 and paddled upstream until 10 o’clock then turned around and got back to race wayside at 11:15. The river was like a mirror. It was smooth as glass and they were very few kayaks on the river. Surprisingly we did see several motor boats and pontoons, sadly we didn’t see any manatees or monkeys, but we did see alligators. It was a nice peaceful paddle before we got back to the campsite and packed everything up. 

Kayak - Ocklawaha River

 We had a lazy time getting up and headed over to salt Springs in Silver Glen Springs. There is an admission charge at each place and before we paid, we ask the Ranger or attendant if they have been seeing manatees, they were not seeing very many as the temperature had risen in the last couple of days, so we scratch that idea and headed to the Ocklawaha River. We paddled from Gores Landing to Eureka West for a total of 9 1/2 miles. This river is different than silver river as it’s got more of the Tanic appearance. It is very dark. We counted 40 alligators that we saw along the way Scotty rode his bike up to get the truck, and guess what, he forgot his keys, so a 7 mile bike ride turned into almost a 20 mile bike ride as he had to return to get his keys and then turn around to go back to the truck.

Kayak - Juniper River

 Today our friend Liz met us at Juniper Springs. We met Liz two years ago at the head of the Ozarks and then again last year she came down from Gainesville and it was nice to have her along and to chat with her. Juniper is so different than any other river and we always enjoy it.  Once again, it was a challenge as you really have to twist and turn to get around the bends in the current is continuous we don’t see many birds along this route for some reason, but we did pass a few alligators. At the end, I saw one of the largest alligators I’ve ever seen, as big as my boat . Apparently, there is a large alligator that lives at the end of this run, and he’s called Elvis, I believe I saw Elvis lounging, and then he slid into the water and swim under the water right beside my boat. We topped off today with a late lunch atLena’s restaurant and seafood restaurant. For appetizers, we got crab bites and calamari. I wouldn’t get the crab bites again, but the calamari were delicious. We all had different plates and everything was delicious. We all agreed. The onion rings are fantastic.

Ocklawaha River

 Today we kayaked from Ray Wayside Park to Gores Landing. It was a 10 mile paddle in about 3 1/2 hours of total paddling time. About 3 miles down we found an open spot on the right bank to have our lunch. It looks like people must regularly go here as we even found some lawn chairs to sit on. We saw quite a few baby alligators, sunning on logs, but no big gators. During this paddle, I concentrated on getting birds in flight pictures as I need some movement picture for my photo class. We saw an awful lot of ibis birds and I was able to get quite a few pictures. The sky was a beautiful blue. It was nice to be away from the cold Tennessee weather. 

.