Saturday, January 10, 2009

Tampa Bay

A cold front went thru the Tampa area on Wednesday – some good sized, almost Texas type winds and some rains! H came to the rescue of the neighbor’s awning that was flipping and flopping, trying it’s best to jump off of the framework that was holding it back. Another neighbor’s tent was trying to lift off like a huge gray balloon, so H deflated it, removed the poles and then secured it down with it’s own tent pegs. Yes, both neighbors were grateful when they returned!

This morning was calm with clear blue skies so the canoe went in the water and we paddled out to the Tampa Bay. It was pretty neat to look to the left and see the St Petersburg skyline and look to the right and see Tampa’s skyline, just as clear as could be.

We almost had a head on collision with 3 manta rays while paddling in the shallows! They split up and careened off at the last moment! There were plenty of low soaring pelicans, underwater soaring of manta rays and even some good sized crabs-possibly horseshoe, since we’ve seen plenty of their shells on the beaches. On the way back up the mangrove-lined canal, there were a bazillion, iddy biddy fish jumping up in front of our mighty craft! The water looked green but yet it was clear enough to see the bottom of the paddles as we dipped them into the water.