Kayaking through the Mangrove Tunnels - Mar. 24, 2011

I must admit that I was a little nervous about going on our guided kayak tour. It's been awhile since I kayaked (last summer) and I wasn't sure I would be able to keep up. I was also nervous about irritating my shoulder to start our vacation. However, it was a very slow-paced guided tour and I had no problems keeping up. There were 3 other people on this particular tour, an older couple from New York and a younger gal from Michigan. There was another tour in progress as you can see a kayak off in the distance. There was another guide with clients that arrived after us. This is a popular thing to do in the Everglades, it seems.

Our family had 2 tandem kayaks. Gage and Scott went out in one kayak and Emma and I went out in the other. I'm thinking we did our kayak purchases wrong. This was so much fun to go out in the tandem kayaks, versus our 2 single kayaks which cause alot of fighting about who gets to go out.

Emma and I were second in line, just behind the guide. It was a slow pace and it was easy to keep up. I didn't have alot of help from my fellow kayaker, so I was happy about the snail pace.

Emma was also a bit out of sorts. She was tired and cranky from waking up the previous morning at 3:20am for our early flight. She was complaining alot about my ability to guide our kayak through the mangrove tunnels.

We stopped every now and again to learn about the area and to see different things. There were alot of fish jumping out in the water and it was fun to watch.

Ooops! I was having troubles seeing the front of my kayak with Emma in front! After entering out first mangrove tunnel, I was having troubles steering the kayak. Many of the tunnels were narrow enough that we had to take our kayak paddles apart and just use the end like an oar. That paired with not being able to see the front of my kayak, due to Emma sitting in front, I backed out of my 2nd position in line and let the other people go ahead of me. Every time we would run into a tree, Emma would make a disgusted noise, only making this a little more frustrating and nerve-wracking for me.

The white splash you see up ahead was the splash from an osprey diving into the water to catch a fish. This was the 2nd dive as I missed the first one, which was much closer to our kayaks. What a site that was. The osprey missed the fish on his first dive, but caught one on the 2nd attempt. Even our guide was excited to see this site as it's not every day that you get to see something like that!

Headed towards the mangrove tunnels.

We start into the tunnels. This one was wide enough that we could keep our paddles in one piece.

Scott and Gage bringing up the rear.

Mangrove tree roots.

More mangrove tree roots.

The tunnels are getting more and more narrow. I have backed off my 2nd place spot and am now just in front of Scott and Gage. We didn't see any alligators in the tunnels, thank goodness!

Scott doing all the work while Gage sits back and enjoys the ride.

This was one of the more narrow tunnels as you see Gage with his paddle taken apart.

Headed out of the tunnel into an open area.

We saw our first alligator (of the tour..........we saw several on the trip down along the "Alligator Alley" toll road) after we were almost done with our tour. You can see the three bumps in the water in the middle of the picture, back towards the trees. He is headed towards the trees.

Scott and Gage went over in the direction of the alligator to get a closer look. Gage wasn't so sure about that!

The guide saw a second alligator but I wasn't able to get pictures of that one.

As we were headed back to shore, the ibis birds were coming back to roost in the trees. They were quite noisy as they settled in for the night.

Nearing the end of our sunset kayak tour.

Here is another shot of the first alligator we saw while out in the kayaks. Kind of freaky being almost at eye to eye level!

More ibis coming in to roost for the night.

After we finished our sunset kayak tour we headed back into Everglade City to get our cabin situation straightened out and we ate supper at Camellia Street Grill and had a wonderful meal out on the patio with live music to boot! We had a great time.

Next stop.................Islands of Adventure and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter! YEAH!!!!

Kayaking in the Everglades - Mar 24 and 25, 2011

I apologize for the delay in getting this posted. I have been having (and continue to have) issues with getting my pictures uploaded to this post for some reason. I have had these pictures on here for about a week, but haven't posted it yet because I still had some pictures to add. I will just post what I have and try to get the other kayaking pictures into another post. We arrived in Everglade City, Florida in the late afternoon on Mar. 24 to find that our cabin had been rented to another person. Apparently there was some sort of glitch in the computer system that booked our cabin rental for January 24, 2011 instead of March 24, 2011. We didn't have time to stay and sort out the details before it was time to head out on our evening kayak tour through the mangrove tunnels, so we headed over to our meeting place for our evening kayak tour. (Those are the pictures I am having troubles getting uploaded.) After our evening kayak tour, we went back to get the details of our cabin straightened out, and luckily there was another guy who had an open cabin that we were able to stay in that night. Gage checking out the back bedroom of the cabin we stayed in. It was a nice little place. This room contained 2 twin beds which Scott and I slept on and the kids stayed in the front of the cabin on a futon and bench that was just the size to fit the futon mattresses on to make into a bed.

This is a shot of the 2nd twin bed in the back room.

Scott and Emma check out some of the pictures and decorating details on the walls.

This is an outside shot of what our cabin looked like.

We stopped at this little store to find some breakfast before heading out onto our early morning kayak tour the following day.

As we were waiting for our guide to arrive, we had some time to drive around the little town and check some things out.

This building is the Smallwood Store that is described in the plaque above. (I am also unable to reorganize pictures for some reason! UGH!) The store, as well as many of the houses in this area, are built on stilts to prevent them from flooding during hurricanes.

This dugout canoe was located underneath the store. I'm not sure if it is just displayed for looking at, or if they still use it today.

Scott at JT's Island Grill and Gallery as we wait for our kayak guide to arrive for our morning tour.

Taking a break in the hammock swing on the porch.

Emma found a new friend during our wait! There were 3-4 different cats running around but this one was the friendliest. Inside the store they had little quarter machines that you would normally get gumballs or candy out of. Here, you get cat food. The quarters are used to help with the ferral cat population by finding them veterinary care and homes to be placed in. What a good idea!

Our guide has arrived! Before we left for our morning tour, he and Emma went around and fed all of the cats. That was right up her alley.

Not sure what kind of flowers these are, but just thought they were pretty and would make a nice picture.

This picture is the decal on our guide's truck. It speaks for itself.

We saw lots of different palm trees and were excited to find a coconut tree. We aren't sure of the difference between the coconut tree and the other palm trees we saw. I guess I should look that up!

We started our morning kayak tour in the Everglades National Park.

Our guide pulled up one of the crab traps to show us the blue crab that it contained.

This is an island made up of all different kinds of shells. We were able to get out of our kayaks and explore and search for some unique shells.

We get a little history about the island and information about some of the different shells we might find.

We are on the hunt to see who can find the best shells.

These are mangrove tree roots.

Emma found a huge cluster of oysters! She had to be very careful because they are sharp and she could have gotten cut.

This is an oyster bed under the water. Many of the shells are empty in this picture, but there were several huge clusters that looked like the one Emma was holding in the previous picture.

Emma and our guide (I can't remember if his name is Ron, or what?) looking for some good shells.

In our hunt, Gage found this little mangrove crab in the trees. He's a weird looking creature!

At first Gage was afraid to hold him, but after Mom let him crawl around on her hand and arm, he decided it must be okay. It felt weird when he walked on your skin, but he was a pretty cool little crab.

Between the two sets of trees, you can see an oyster bed in the water. It is low tide right now so they aren't completely submerged at this time.

We kayaked several miles out in the bay around the Ten Thousand Islands area. We were near Chokoloskee Island. The area is a mix of fresh water and salt water and we were on the lookout for Manatees. It was a great place to be to find them, but they were all hiding somewhere else on this particular day, which totally bummed Gage out.

After our kayak tour ended around lunch time, we headed to Big Cypress National Preserve where the kids became Junior Rangers by taking an oath and doing several different activities.

"I, Gage Stephens.........." and "I, Emma Stephens, do swear..................."

They earned their Big Cypress Junior Park Ranger badges!!

This is the smallest post office I have ever seen!

We were the only people being guided on this early morning kayak tour so we were able to do just about anything we wanted to do. We were on a quest to find manatees, but unfortunately the weather was warm enough that particular morning that we weren't able to find any in the wild.