What a trip this was! We decided to do a mini-vacation and stay overnight in St. Augustine, the oldest city in the U.S. Saturday we walked around the city, visited Castillo de San Marcos, a fort built in the 17th century, and took a cheesy tour of the Old St. Johns […]
I’ve been meaning to check out Orlando Wetlands Park for a while now. It’s actually a man-made, intentional swamp/marsh that is tightly managed and controlled, and functions as a last-step filtration for waste water. I did a bit of research on the facility, and I find it truly elegant and […]
… I did get to ride a manatee.
The original plan was to paddle the Silver River in Ocala on Saturday. Tropical Storm Debby changed those plans, though. We didn’t want to drive almost 2 hours if we were going to be rained out, so we instead decided to stay close and just head to the Wekiva River. […]
Kayak Cutie and I decided to take a little mini-vacation this weekend. We found a good rate at the Crowne Plaza – Westshore near Tampa Int’l Airport. Arriving mid-afternoon on Saturday, we hit the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, had a stellar dinner at Doormet (Truffle Mac ‘n’ Cheese!), and retired early. […]
A friend of mine shared a profound article with me from the Wall Street Journal, titled “Mom Was Right: Go Outside”. It touches on evidence that being outdoors, especially in nature, improves mood, creativity, and general well-being. The article definitely hit home for me. I’ve been an avid “indoorsman” since […]
Back on the water! Woohoo! Today was a relatively lazy paddle on the Indian River. We launched from a nice beachy site at the end of a long, unmarked dirt road off of Courtenay Parkway just northwest of the Haulover Canal Bridge. The site seems to be pretty popular for […]
Now there’s something that every kayaker LOVES to read. It’s alligator mating season, which means they’re a little bit more aggressive and territorial. I’m certainly no expert, but I believe that in this instance, the gator was baited by the small dog who was sitting in the boat. At any […]
A bit limited on time, we decided to stay relatively close this weekend and went back to Katie’s Landing for another Wekiva River jaunt. Last time we were here, we traveled upstream toward Wekiwa Springs. This time we planned on venturing in the opposite direction, downstream toward the St. John’s […]
Wekiwa or Wekiva? So, which is it? This has confused me for a while now. I stumbled onto this YouTube video, and at around 2:10 into the video he explains very succinctly: “Wekiwa” and “Wekiva” are both Indian words. “Wekiwa” means “Water flowing from the ground, or a spring” “Wekiva” […]