We had just spent last weekend in Maine, so why not head to another corner of the US for this weekend? That’s what we decided to do. I had a four-day weekend for the July4th holiday, so we loaded up the car and headed out after work Thursday even to visit Laura’s sister, Amy, in Florida.
The drive down was crowded, but not too bad. We stopped for the night near St. Mary’s in Georgia, then continued in the morning, arriving at Amy’s right at 10:00 am.
Our plan was to float. I’d brought down my kayak, we had Amy’s kayak, and her pool was waiting. And float we did, for three days. For the 4th we did our traditional hamburgers and we had fireworks we had brought along. Amy decided that we needed temporary tattoos for the event, so we obliged.
I took the kayak out a couple of times. Saturday was hot, and it was a zoo out in the channel, with lots of boats headed out to parties on the Redneck Riviera. I decided that the pool took less effort, so I came back and settled in.
There were several very large fireworks displays all up and down the Indian River. We were able to enjoy competing explosions without having to leave the house.
And so it’s Sunday. We had planned to drive back today, but Laura sent an e-mail to her research group saying that I was stuck in the pool and that we would be delayed. I took advantage of the extra time for a another paddle trip out to the spoil islands. I left a bit earlier, and this time I was rewarded with a cooler paddle and more wildlife. I saw several osprey, ibises, herons, dolphin, and even a sea turtle.
This afternoon we’ll head back out and see how far we get. Tomorrow we’ll be back in Greenville, and back to a semi-regular schedule.