Monday - Another Gorgeous Day in Paradise!

Ken was up at 6, but I had a bad, restless night and told him to wake me at 7.  He left at 7:15 for his walk with Ernie, but I decided not to join them this morning because we were leaving at 9:30 for a kayak adventure.  So, I spent my time getting ready organizing our lunches, and then getting breakfast started.

Ken returned around 8:30 and it took the next hour to get ready to go.  Ernie, Noela, Ken and I left the CG in our car at 9:30 and drove about 1 1/4 hours to Estero Bay area and rented kayaks from the Outfitters there.  

The paddle takes you through areas of what I think of as "old time" Florida -

Come on, Ken, we need to catch up!

How beautiful and picturesque!

We stopped in a little shady area to eat our lunches!

Ernie wanted to get out of the kayak and climb the sand bank!

I decided to join him when he saw a turtle at the top!

Always fun to kayak with Ernie and Noela!

What a phenomenal 3 hour paddle seeing dolphins, one manatee, a large alligator, and turtles.  Unfortunately we didn't  get a photo of the dolphins or manatee, but honest, we did see them.  ]

Some nice sized turtles enjoying the sun!

Near the end of our paddle, we finally got to see an alligator!

Apparently the turtles are not afraid of the alligator!

We were back to the Outfitters dock by 2:15 and at the CG by 4.  Showers felt amazing after all that suntan lotion and spending so much time in the sunshine - it was in the low 80's.

Ken rested and I worked on this blog and then left at 6:30 for Celebrate Recovery.  I made some designs for x-stitching jar lids and outlined them on graph paper.  Then I took a bike ride around the CG to check which park models are now for sale.  With people getting ready to leave, more are becoming available and it is fun to look them up on line to see pictures and pricing.

I spent the remainder of the evening doing x-stitch and watching "The Voice".  Ken was back by 9:30 and by 10 we were in bed reading.  Another special day!