Birthdays and Kayaking

Last Friday was Judy's birthday and we celebrated in style.  Deb and Gerard hosted our gathering tonight for which Deb baked a great lasagne dinner.  I baked a chocolate cake for Judy to finish off the evening.

 John thought he would check out Judy's birthday tiara.  A great new look John but I would ditch the cap.

Today was going to be a big day for lots of reasons.  We had planned on getting up at 4:30 am to watch the launch of a supply rocket from Cape Canaveral.  The rocket was to take supplies to the space center and return with a load of trash.  Due to some type of contamination the flight was delayed.  So we got to sleep in a bit longer this morning,

Today was the 21st birthday of our beautiful Granddaughter Taylor.  Happy Birthday sweetie.  We love you tons.

So since we got to sleep in it was 7:00 am today when we all hit the road for the Weeki Wachee River.  We rented three tandem kayaks for the day.  Seemed easier than dragging our kayaks up there especially when we would have to pay just as much to launch and have them return them up river for us as we would to use their equipment.  It was a 2 1/2 hour drive with a quick stop at McDonald's for breakfast on the way.  We hit the river shortly after 10:00 am.  WOW.  The water is so clear and the current on this spring fed river took us downstream at about 2 miles per hour.  We didn't have to work very hard at all just keeping it going around the corners.

 You can see the fish on the bottom on the river

 Beautiful turquoise water.  We had hoped to see manatee today but it looks like they have all moved back into the gulf.  We only saw one big fellow swim past us during the day.  After about 3 hours of floating, paddling and having lunch on the water we arrived at the take out point.  The nice thing about renting the equipment is someone else gets to take them out of the water, load them and worry about them.  We just hopped into a van and got a ride back to the park.   An ice cream cone was in order before we went to watch the mermaids show.

 It was quite a performance enjoyed by young and old alike.  The worked under water for nearly an hour using the breathing tubes you see above in the second picture.  No masks, no nose plugs. Interesting.

 There were some very colorful peacocks wandering around the grounds.

If you get the chance to visit the Weeki Wachee Springs State Park be sure to do so.  It is well worth the drive.  

We stopped in Lakeland for dinner at a delightful Italian Restaurant.  Home, tired but what a fabulous day.  

Until next time - safe travels.