My quota for wildlife

Here are some pictures from the kayaking trip:

It was a beautiful morning to be out on a river with our beautiful, sweet, girl!

I'm glad she's also a VERY patient girl because she was behind me in the kayak and I ended up accidentally splashing her with my paddle just about the whole trip! Poor thing.

We were shown a map and some pictures of land marks and given a phone number for emergencies and the pick up times and sent on our way down the river alone.

The scenery was lovely. We had to love the fact that we were going DOWN stream!

In some places there was only about a foot of space for us to get our kayak between logs and fallen trees.

Here's a blue heron!

Why did all those logs in the water have to look like they had eyes and make me nervous about alligators?

Our favorite creatures were the turtles! Although I did spot a baby alligator at one point, I wasn't worried about one that size. Then Joy reminded me that a baby alligator meant there was a mama somewhere nearby and she told me to 'get paddling!' She didn't have to tell me twice!

Here is her 'half way point happy dance!' It was time to land and have lunch! Also time to rest our sore arms.

Not long after this I spotted something that was NOT a log with eyes and it was HUGE and the eyes were real. It had me beat in size. And as I tried to paddle and not panic, something else dove under our kayak which freaked us both out a little and we paddled for all we were worth.

Seeing this sign and taking that left turn meant we made it without getting lost!
 Now to find the landing spot from the photo they showed us....hmmmm

We were 45 minutes early for the pick up time (maybe due to the alligator induced paddling) and also unsure if we were at the landing spot that we were shown a picture of two hours ago. Everything was a blur in our minds by this time. So, we pulled up to a spot we thought was right and walked around the deserted state park. That was then that I realized that I didn't have a signal on my phone and that we were completely alone in the middle of pretty much nowhere. I couldn't phone the canoe company to make sure we were in the right spot. I couldn't call anyone. And then my over active imagination went a little wild with possibly dangerous sceneros which would require me trying to defend us with only my car keys or my rubber paddle should some crazy guy visiting the state park find the two of us alone...

So, we got back in our happy little kayak to wait in the water which seemed safer, (despite the mama gator) where I kept watching the time (and praying). As you can imagine, I was beyond happy to see a rickety old school bus with the canoe company's name on it coming down the dirt trail 40 minutes later. Praise the Lord!

When you add this to shark dissecting I'm pretty sure I've experienced enough nature for one week. ; )

When I got home, I found out that our heavenly home improvement angel had come to visit! (thank you Carlos!) What a blessing to have a friend who comes over and fixes everything that is broken in your whole house! Amazing! He knocked out my hubby's 'honey do' list in no time flat. Now we are all ready for my hubby's brother to arrive and for care-giving adventure # 3 to start.

That night Andrew's dream came true. We were able to attend a Mitt Romney rally! Whoo-hoo! But that was another adventure all together and a post for another day which doesn't include any wildlife. (unless you count 5 protesters who were under the age of 18) ; )
~Becky