Wednesday, April 1, 2015

A is for Alligator


Last week, my sister talked me into canoeing with the alligators. Well...to be precise, she talked several of us into it.  We had travelled down to Sarasota, Florida for a few days with my brother to join a friend who was vactioning there from Germany.  The weather was beautiful and warm after the gray, snow-bearing skies of February here in Ohio, and it was our last afternoon before we needed to head back north.   We had already braved about as much sunshine, water, and sand as our winter skin could handle, but it seemed criminal to end our stay indoors when we would be heading back to the brisk chill of early spring weather in a matter of hours.  "Canoeing!" she says, and "Okay," the rest of us say.  And so we headed out to Myakka River State Park and a slightly more Animal Planet experience than most of us had anticipated.   (My sister had apparently been dreaming of the Everglades so this was an acceptable second!)

Or maybe we had all just watched too much Animal Planet?  The alligators we happened to see were peacable and content and mostly just disappeared under the water when we came too near.  Adrenaline and nerves aside, it made for an incredible afternoon of beauty and bird watching. We didn't count, but I wouldn't be surprised if we saw more than 20 different types of birds. Most of them birds we had never seen in real life before.  It made for an excellent and memory making afternoon. And now I can say, I've gone canoeing with the alligators.

What about you? Have you ever done something you never thought you'd do, only to find out it was something pretty special?



4 comments:

  1. Hi there!
    I’m stopping by during the A to Z Challenge. I enjoyed stopping by and hope you get the chance to check out my blog sometime during this month. I’m a children’s book author and I’m reviewing different books. Good luck with the challenge!
    Take care,
    Donna L Martin
    www.donnalmartin.com
    author THE STORY CATCHER
    coauthor CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL: ANGELS AMONG

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    1. Oh wonderful. Looking forward to checking out your reviews. I write mostly YA fantasy/speculative fiction, so this is right up my alley!

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  2. Hi,
    I enjoyed this post. I live in the desert SW and might be moving to FL when my house sells. If not there, someplace where there will be lots of alligators. It's time to get closer to the water after ten a and a half years in the desert.

    Yes, I have done something I thought I'd never do and it was nicer than I expected because I was terrified at the time. That was going ballooning a few years ago.

    I'm glad you went on the canoe trip. It might be a once in a lifetime thing. You have to seize the moment when you can.

    Sunni
    http://sunni-survivinglife.blogspot.com/

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    1. Ballooning. Wow. I don't think I have the nerve, but I've heard its absolutely beautiful up in the air with the world all laid out below you and everything absoutely silent except for the bursts offlame. So glad you seized the moment!!

      Sounds like you are in for some interesting times of transitin in the near future. I can't speak to FL in the summer (or really most of the year), but my few days there in late March were wonderful. All that bright blue sky and lush growing life everywhere. And the breezes off the water...

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