Sea Cow Kisses

I have been anxiously waiting for Thursday, 12/15, to arrive. We booked our excursion on Crystal River with Captain Mike’s Swim with the Manatees after reading about it on Howard & Linda’s (RV Dreams) blog. They’ve gone with this company twice (always a good sign!) AND we had the option of booking a 5-hour semi-private tour with a heated houseboat. Oh yeah! I’m in!

We were up at 5am and out the door shortly after 6 to make the 1½ hour drive to Crystal River. The boat leaves at 8am, but we needed to be there early enough to get fitted for our wetsuits and go through the mandatory safety and “don’t screw with the manatees” briefing. :)  One of the advantages of this tour, in addition to the heated boat (did I mention that? Lol), is that they take a maximum of 6 people. We picked a weekday, hoping to avoid crowds and ended up with the whole boat to ourselves. There were other tour companies also out and about, but no hordes of fellow noodle riding snorkelers - or noodle soup as Yves called it. :)

Captain Mike's - highly recommended!

So thankful for the option of a heated boat, even with a wet-suit my teeth were chattering!

Our Captain, Yves, (yes, he was French) was great. He went through all the mandatory briefings with humor and gave us lots of tips on how to interact with the manatees to get the best experience. He’d previously worked with a Manatee Research agency, so he was very knowledgeable and conservation minded and genuinely cared about the manatees, putting the welfare of the animals first. A huge plus in our book.

Manatees are currently on the endangered species list. With the designation comes federal restrictions on things like boat speed and waterfront development that are credited with protecting the species and reversing its decline. However, with their numbers on the rebound in Florida (up from about 1260 in 1991 to over 6000 today), there has been a decade-long battle to remove the manatee from the endangered species list. (Think housing developers and boaters who want the restrictions removed! Grrrrrrrr!) Most of the adults we saw had propeller scars, a common problem when fast motor boats and slow-moving manatees meet in the shallow waters. Captain Yves said that the laws really have helped and he sees fewer serious injuries, although enforcement is spotty at best and prosecution is non-existent.  

How could you not want to protect this face!

Crystal River is one of the few places where you are allowed to interact with the manatees. There are lots of “manatee sanctuary” areas roped off so the manatees always have a place to get some peace and quiet. The tour operators also do a good job of watching and curbing inappropriate behaviors.

Buoys mark the Manatee Sanctuary - no swimming, no boating, no bothering them!

I claim sanctuary! See the rope line above, he swam right to the line and stopped. Lol.

Our job was to be passive observers. The protocol is to float/swim quietly nearby and let the manatees come to us if they were interested. Some would ignore us entirely, others would swim away, but some would come over to check us out. You cannot image how exciting it is to have one of these adorable behemoths come over to investigate the dorky looking snorkelers.  Lol.

Hello.  What are you??

Oh, I see. You're wearing a dorkle. 

Wouldn't you want to check out this dork?? Lol. 

Rog had the best interaction of all when a youngster came up behind him and snurfled him and then smiled (or at least opened his mouth giving Rog a clear view of his gummy grin). Rog said you could feel his whiskers right through the wetsuit. Yes, I am insanely jealous and want to be snurfled too! Lol.

They adults are just huge.

I swear he's smiling!

Some Manatee Fun Facts: Although manatees are often called “sea cows”, they are actually most closely related to elephants. There isn’t much of a family resemblance, but it does help explain their size. They are BIG. Adults grow to 13 feet long and weigh up to 1200 pounds! They are gentle giants, however.  They have no teeth to bite with (only molars for grinding vegetation), no claws, and not an aggressive bone in their bodies. Even cows with calves are not aggressive and will just move away from something that disturbs them. They are herbivores with no natural predators which probably accounts for their laid-back disposition. The adults are pretty mellow, but the juveniles can be curious.

Mom with her calf.

The manatees are fully aquatic mammals and will surface for air every couple minutes when swimming, but can stay submerged for 15-20 minutes when they are just resting on the bottom. They graze a lot, eating up to a tenth of their body weight in sea grass and vegetation every day. They also need warm water and will get sick if they remain in temps under 68˚F for very long. That is why they love to hang out in the 72˚ Florida spring water in the winter!

Going up for air.

The only small ding on our day was that the water clarity wasn’t that great. So the pictures leave a little to be desired. The manatees are so huge that to get all of them in the picture, you have to back up so far that it’s hard to get a clear shot in murky water. That aside, this is a must do if you ever get a chance. It’s quite a thrill to be floating along and suddenly realize that you’re directly above a huge gray algae covered ele-cousin who is turning to look at you! So awesome!

The barnacles are a sign this guy has spent a good deal of time in the salt water.

We have some kayaking planned here on Cedar Key and Saturday night we hope to see the boat parade and Santa Clam! Lol. If the weather holds on Sunday, we might try to take the kayaks to Manatee State Park. Who knows, maybe I’ll get lucky and get snurfled by an affectionate sea cow. Lol.

On the Road Again and a Cedar Key Stroll

We’ve been enjoying the slower pace – stopping for a week or more is definitely more relaxing than moving every few (or every!) day.  But the 500 miles from our beachfront location on Sugarloaf Key to our next 10-day stop at Cedar Key, means we’ll be doing some more overnighters.

Got a kick out of the concrete road dividers painted a lovely Caribbean blue. 

Our first stop was at Collier-Seminole State Park near Naples Florida.  We pulled in Wednesday, 12/7, in the afternoon.   The park had lots to offer – trails, kayaking, and historical buildings. In the 1920’s, Barron Collier bought about a million acres in southwest Florida. After agreeing to name a county after him, he set aside a large tract of land to create a park to preserve one of only three original stands of royal palms in Florida.  He also helped build the Collier county section of the Tampa-to-Miami highway and the park has one of the walking dredges used in its construction. Very cool.  With just a few hours to explore, we walked the park and nature trail – got a great view of a red shouldered hawk checking us out.

Stately Royal Palms at Collier-Seminole State Park.

Walking Dredge used in the 1920's to build the Tamiami Trail (Tampa to Miami highway).

Lovely walking trails in the park.

He took an interest in us, glad I wasn't mouse-sized.

We pulled out Thursday morning and hit the Costco in Tampa and then continued on to Hillsborough River State Park near Thonotosassa, FL. (Say that three times fast! Lol.)  This turned out to be another great state park with lovely walking trails – the suspension bridge was fun! Hillsborough also boasts the only Class 2 rapids in Florida. At any time, Class 2 isn't that wild and with the low water levels there was barely a riffle. No white water kayaking here! Lol.  

Hillsborough River lined with cypress and palms.

I expected a swinging rope bridge, but the suspension bridge was quite substantial.  It was still bouncy, though!  :)

Heron by the "rapids". 

Friday, 12/9, we made it to Cedar Key – along with the cold front. Lol. Though I guess we can’t complain, even though it was chilly and we ran the heater instead of the air conditioners, it’s a far sight from the arctic conditions much of the country is experiencing. We are staying at the aptly named, Sunset Isle RV Park, just 1 ½ miles outside of town.

Our home for the next 10 days. Yeah, I can live with that. 

Sunset from our patio.

Cedar Key has a funky, laid-back, small town vibe. No stoplights, no big box stores – but plenty of charm. The town suffered a direct hit from Hurricane Hermine in September and evidence of the damage is still visible.  While many businesses have rebuilt, others are still a work in progress and some didn’t make it. We’ve walked into town a few times and rode our bikes to the local park, where we visited the museum and saw a pair of nesting bald eagles.

Welcome to Cedar Key!

Jolly Roger flying above the old piers.

Lasting reminders of Hurricane Hermine.

Lots of fun, funky art around town.

Loved the carving on this stump.

Bald eagle on its nest.

Since the Cedar Key post office hasn’t reopened since the hurricane, we had to make the 50-mile round trip to Chiefland to mail our Christmas boxes on Monday. Manatee Springs State Park was close by, so we swung in there to check it out. Very nice park where you can swim in the beautiful springs and, if you are lucky, with a manatee! There was a mommy and baby manatee in the springs, but we hadn’t brought our swimsuits.  Ugh! We opted for the trail and found lots of adorable armadillos on our walk. So Florida has furry squirrels, scaly squirrels, and now armored squirrels. Lol.

Armadillos - Florida's armored squirrels. Lol.

Beautiful springs that pump out 150 million gallons of 72 degree water daily.

Look beneath the reflections of the cypress trees to see the mamma and baby manatee.

On Tuesday, Rog drove to Ocala for another of his “epic” mountain bike trails. He rode 46 miles (better him than me!) and had a great time. Not much elevation gain on the single track, but the local club has added tricks to keep it interesting.

Santos Mountain Bike Trail, another IMB "Epic" ride. 

Fun holiday decorations along the trail.

Rog's riding partner. :) 

You can ride on the path (left) or that teeny, tiny wooden balance beam for bikes (right).
Rog, of course, went for the boards! lol. 

There is lots to do in the Cedar Key area. As soon as the weather cooperates, we can go kayaking right from the campground. We just need to time the tides right or we’ll be stranded far out on the mud flats. Lol. Getting up close and personal with the manatees is high on my bucket list, so we we’ve booked an excursion in Crystal River to “swim with the manatees”.  So looking forward to that!  

Salt Water Kayaking and the Iguana Whisperer

Saturday, 12/3, was spent relaxing around the RV. It was a nice change of pace. The weather was still warm, but very windy. We want to do some kayaking, but there is a small craft advisory and craft doesn’t get much smaller than ours! Lol.

Just hanging out in Paradise.

On Sunday, we decided to take the kayak and try for a paddle to Indian Key. The put in point was about an hour away and by the time we got close, the wind had kicked up again and there were 2 ft. waves and whitecaps. Not gonna happen today. Lol.  So we turned around and ducked into Bahia Honda state park to check it out and walk the beach. They have a lovely campground with fantastic waterfront sites, but it was booked solid 9 months out when I was making our reservations.

Cloudy skies above Bahia Honda State Park.

High tide on the beach.

Can’t complain about our KOA site, though. We were amazed that the park is only about a third full, but one of the staff said that their busy season doesn’t usually start until after the holidays. Lucky for us! I also warned you that I would be sharing more pictures of the campground’s resident iguanas.  Turns out Rog is the Iguana Whisperer. Lol. Maybe it’s more a case of “feed them, and they will come”.

Hey girlfriend, you got a little green stuck there on your mug. :)

Happy to see Rog. 

Salad for lunch.

The Iguana Whisperer. Lol. 

We also took a side trip to Bat Tower Road just a few miles away on Sugarloaf Key. In the 1920’s, real estate developer Richter Perky, believed that the hordes of mosquitoes were the only thing standing in the way of success for his fishing resort. This was before any control measures were put in place and the voracious clouds of blood-suckers were unbelievable. One twentieth-century entomologist caught 365,696 mosquitoes in just ONE trap in ONE night. (And we were complaining about the little biting no-see-ums. Ha!)

A Texas doctor had success building artificial roosts for bats to combat mosquitoes there. Perky bought the plans for the “Malaria-Eradicating Guano Producing Bat Roost” and spent $10,000 building the 30’ tall bat tower, with “all the conveniences any little bat heart could possible desire.”  (Really, I am not making this up!)  Unfortunately, not a single bat moved in. He tried importing some bats, but they flew off. The tower has withstood 80 years of weather and hurricanes and finally has a resident, an osprey built a nest on top.

The Bat Tower, the only flying resident is the Osprey in the nest on top. 

 “All the conveniences any little bat heart could possible desire.”  Lol. But it's in the wrong neighborhood!

Since our Sunday kayaking plans were a bust, on Monday we chose a launch site closer to camp and a little more sheltered. We put in at Sammy Landing and our plan was to paddle up Sammy Creek into Lower Sugarloaf Sound.  There are dozens of little keys and mangrove hummocks and, while it looked easy to navigate on google maps, they all look pretty much the same from water level. Lol. After a few false starts we finally made it out to the Sound. It was still windy, so we had the best luck in the protected areas around the mangroves seeing fish and lots of little snowflake jelly fish. Randi had sent me a photo of the snowfall in Kent just as we were starting out on our kayaking trip, so we got a big kick out of the snowflake jellies.

We tried a different launch point a few miles away on Summerland Key on Tuesday. But we didn’t take into account the low tide and the water just wasn’t deep enough even for the shallow draft of our kayak. We managed about an hour or so out on the water and it was a fun paddle, but we kept dragging bottom (hey, no jokes about losing that 10 pounds!) and the wind was baaaack, making it hard paddling.

Sammy Creek looking out toward Sugarloaf Sound. 

The only snowflakes we saw in Florida!

Snowy egret in flight.

Sea grass is plentiful in the shallow waters.

Lots of tiny fishies above the sea grass. 

Rog has been hitting the fresh seafood market nearly every day this week – fried grouper, yellowtail snapper fish tacos, shrimp, calamari salad, smoked fish dip…. we are suffering. Lol.  Since Tuesday was our last night in the lower keys, we had dinner out at a local restaurant, the Square Grouper, very tasty seafood stew for me and a grouper sandwich for Rog. Of course, we had to finish up with the requisite key lime pie, but they also had peanut butter pie, a favorite of ours, on the menu. What to do? Dilemma solved! Order one of each and go halfsies. Lol.

We leave Wednesday, 12/7, and have a couple of travel days to get to our next destination, Cedar Key, on the Gulf Coast of Florida.