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Paddling.net photo of the week

I get weekly emails from paddling.net updating me on the newest gear, stories, and the winner of the weekly photo contest. It's one of the few things that I still have to keep me from slipping away from kayaking community.

I decided to send in a photo from our Florida trip a couple days ago and this morning I had a message in my inbox from the people at Paddling.net. It was to let me know that I was the winner of their weekly contest. While I didn't win any prizes, it's still fun to see my picture on a site that I check up on frequently.

http://www.paddling.net/photography/

Adventures in Florida 2008: Part 3 1/2/09

On our last day in Florida we decided to drive up the coast an hour to Georgia and take a ferry to Cumberland Island. It was on my "to do" list for about a year, and I was glad to fit it in, even if it was on our last day.

Cumberland Island is Georgia's largest barrier island. While the southern part of the island is uninhabited by man, it is teeming with wildlife, including 150 wild horses. To get there you have to take a 45 minute ferry ride or use your own boat. The island's diverse history makes for spectacular scenery.

We boarded the ferry in St. Mary's, GA, and 45 minutes later arrived at Cumberland Island. There are two stops that the ferry makes, the first one is at the Icehouse Museum and Dungeness ruins area. The second stop is at Sea Camp, the area for camping and hanging out at the beach. We wanted to see as much as we could so we decided to get off at the first stop, and get back on the ferry at Sea Camp when it was time to leave. It would be close, but we were sure we could make it, we had a couple hours to walk 2 miles.

As we exited ferry the breeze caught our faces, and six wild horses were grazing in the field just ahead of us. We walked over to the ruins of the Dungeness Mansion and spent some time wandering around and taking pictures. Jeremy looked at his watch and realized that we had less than a hour to get to Sea Camp to be picked up by the ferry. The one thing about visiting Cumberland Island is that you have to get back to catch the ferry or you will have to hire a private boat to come and pick you up. The park rangers said a private boat trip usually runs about $250, making it a very expensive trip to the island for the day.

We decided to pick up the pace and get to the beach as fast as we could. There are a couple areas with people enjoying the beach, but the rest was empty. Jeremy checked his watch again and we decided to pick up the pace even more. There were people on the beach ahead of us and we hoped that we had made it to Sea Camp. As we got closer we saw the sign for Sea Camp Beach, we had made it. We only had about 20 minutes before the ferry left the island so we half-sprinted over the boardwalk and through the canopy of oak trees. I was practically taking pictures as we were walking. We made it to the dock where the ferry was loading, five minutes to spare. 45 minutes later we were back in St. Marys and our trip was over.

Unloading back at the dock in St. Mary's I saw pelicans sitting on poles watching us. I couldn't help but smile, and think about Jeremy's friend back in St. Augustine.

New Years Eve in St Augustine

We were able to spend a little more time in St. Augustine this year, which was really great, since it's one of my favorite places in Florida. We went to the pier to see the fireworks. It was one of the better shows that I have seen. I'm contributing that to the reflections that the fireworks made on the ocean.

Adventures in Florida 2008: Part 2 12/30/08

After photographing Megan and Brian at Alpine Groves I decided that it would be a fantastic place to go for a afternoon canoe and kayak trip. Than we could finish up by catching one of those fantastic sunsets over the river. I have a kayak that I keep at my parents house and Jeremy borrowed the canoe from his parents, we were off.

The park is setup perfectly with a boat launch, so it made things really easy. Jeremy decided to bring Dakota, that's when it got really fun. His first trick was to tip Jeremy over in the canoe. Luckily they hadn't gotten very far and Jeremy was able to dump the water out of the canoe and keep going. Dakota hopped back into the boat for a bit longer but he really preferred to be swimming or jumping alongside the boat as opposed to riding in it. We stayed along the shore and Dakota was able to keep up with the canoe as we went underneath the docks. After a couple hours Jeremy decided to take Dakota back to the house and get a change of clothes. He made it back just in time to go out one more time for the sunset.

There is just something amazing about sunset paddling. When the water is calm you get this really amazing reflection from the sky. The water is no longer blue, but purple. You can't help but stare each time you dip your paddle into the water.

What a great trip it was, I'll be thinking of this one out here in Colorado when we get our next blizzard.

Megan and Brian at Alpine Groves Park

It's not all of the time that you get to photograph your beautiful little sister, as a real photo session that is. Especially when you live in Colorado and they live in Florida. When the opportunity came up, I was more than excited.

We drove a quick 5 minutes to Alpine Groves Park. It was the first time that I had been able to get down there and I had heard so many great things about it. It was a citrus grove plantation dating back to the 1800s and is being restored to some of it's former glory. We got there about an hour and a half before sunset and wandered our way through the park until we ended up at the shore of the St. Johns River.

Adventures in Florida 2008: Part 1

Well, we have only been in Florida a couple days and already it has been adventure.

Our drive from Colorado to Florida took about 30 hours, and when we arrived Saturday evening we were completely exhausted! After a good nights sleep, we decided that it would be relaxing to take a trip to St. Augustine beach. We drove through downtown St. Augustine, parked, and walked up by the Casa Monica and than ended up at A1A Ale Works for lunch on the balcony. They have the best ale and cheddar soup, so it's super important that our once a year trip to Florida includes a stop by A1A. There was a slight breeze coming off Mantasas Bay and the temp. was a glorious 78 degrees. It felt just incredible, and I thought I could've sat there forever.

We finished up at A1A and walked by the Lightner Museum to pay a visit to the koi in the museum's courtyard. After taking many pictures of the brightly colored koi and than getting the "I'm bored" look from Jeremy, we walked back to the car for a ride to the beach.

We kicked off our shoes and hopped out of the 4Runner. It wasn't too long before we met up with what would become our first big adventure. As we walked there was a huge brown pelican on the shore. I was holding my breath hoping that it would stay put and I could take its picture. We kept getting closer and than finally it started waddling toward us and flapping it's wings. We took off down the beach. Later on, when it was time to walk back to the truck, we saw the pelican attacking a guy on his bicycle. It was biting his leg, and when we walked up it went towards Jeremy. It latched onto Jeremy and tried a sawing action on his wrist. His fingers went inside his throat sack and than Jeremy pulled out his hand. After that experience we decided we were done at the beach, and besides, Jeremy needed to wash and disinfect his hand. Back at the house, we had a great story to tell, and the pictures to prove it!

I don't think that I will ever feel the same about pelicans again.

Merry Christmas, Monica