Well, we are in kayak heaven here. The Hillsborough River is really gorgeous. It's kind of narrow and very clear and has beautiful foliage on both banks - lots of palms and cypress trees and live oaks and all kinds of other green stuff! We kayaked for about two hours yesterday and more than three hours today. Not only is the river beautiful, but the temperature is FINALLY just right - in the low 70's with sunny skies and just a light breeze. Perfect! I'm going to put some pictures out here, but they don't begin to show what the river is like - when we're out there we have a full 360 degree panorama - whereas the pictures are just a teensy snippet out of the whole thing - but they at least give you a small indication of where we are. Today was sort of "critter" day on the river for us today. We counted about twelve alligator s along the river - one really big guy whose pictures I am posting (although once again I don't think it'll do him justice!) - plus we saw a teensy little baby - it was so cute: we paddled past a log that had a whole row of turtles lined up on it and Dave suddenly noticed that the last "turtle" in line was actually a little tiny alligator - he probably wasn't even a foot long. We thought he was adorable but we did NOT hang around very long - the very last thing you want to do is get between a baby and its momma! We also saw another different thing - normally you see alligators lying along the bank in a grassy and/or muddy area - but we saw one today that was lying full length along the trunk of a palm tree that was hanging over the edge of the water at about a 30 degree angle. That was really weird looking - but I didn't get a picture because as we approached him he suddenly slipped into the water. It's always kind of a strange feeling to have one of them slip into the water and you realize you have NO idea where he is - that's when we paddle kind of fast! Another cool thing we saw today was a big old buck! He was really big and Dave thinks he was maybe a 10 point. We had just come around a bend in the river and he was down at the water's edge drinking. When he saw us, he climbed up the bank but just kind of stood there looking at us. Then he wandered off and we could hear him still moving along the bank, but a little ahead of us. But then we came around another bend and all of a suddent he was clamoring up the bank on the opposite side of the river - Dave had heard a splash ahead of us and thought it might be an alligator but apparently it was this buck crossing over to the other side. Then he stood there and looked at us for quite a while again- it was extremely cool to see him just standing there - beautiful! Plus we saw dozens and dozens of turtles of all different sizes - some really big ones - all sitting out sunning themselves on logs and branches. And we saw a little water snake swimming ahead of us and all kinds of birds, including a really pretty hawk that let Dave paddle right below him and what I'm certain was a sandhill crane - at least, he had the typical red spot on top of his head. We really do enjoy seeing all the life along the river!
Because it's been nice for the last two days now (YAY!) we had a nice big campfire last night and just sat outdoors for a couple hours - this is the FIRST fire where we've sat outside with "regular" cloths on instead of winter jackets, hats and goves! We are FINALLY on our "winter trip"! It's supposed to rain during Saturday and Sunday so we'll find something to do, but so far we absolutely LOVE this park and are having a great time.
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