Swift Fish Net

I spent a few days in Florida around Memorial Day. It was really great to get away and just relax for a few days! A selection of activities is as follows…

• Tampa Bay Rays Vs. Baltimore Orioles: The Rays completed a sweep with a walk-off RBI double
• Kayaking the Weedon Island canoe trail
• Geocaching on Honeymoon Island

Although I am from Maryland, I was not at all sorry to see the Rays win as I am not an Oriole fan. In fact, I will probably always be a Phillies fan, having grown up in South Jersey. Scoreboard watching saw the Phillies win as well. It was quite a good game. There were some home runs, stolen bases, lead changes, and drama in the bottom of the ninth.

The kayaking at Weedon Island was different than the canoeing I am used to in the Jersey Pine Barrens. It was quite interesting skimming through these rather narrow paths through the mangroves. It was a bit difficult not to get the paddle caught crosswise in the branches. I think I liked the open water sections better. There were lots of fish (mullets?) jumping, and I think I may have seen a shark (it had a fin sticking out of the water for a while). The photo is of the author approaching one of those narrow mangrove paths to the right of the trail marker.

Weedon Island Kayaking

During the geocaching, I finally dropped off a travel bug that kiirekass had been keeping captive for months. With the three cache finds, I am now up to 90 found geocaches. There was a rattle snake in the vicinity. Fortunately, it didn’t rattle. In addition to geocaching, we walked the osprey trail and saw lots of ospreys, of course, but also a gopher tortoise peaking out of a burrow. Before leaving, I captured this video of some pelicans fishing. They were being pestered by gulls every time they scooped up a pouch of fish. The background sounds consist of wind, waves, gulls, and a running commentary. You most likely won’t decipher the commentary unless you know the Estonian language.