Manatees and more

Noel has kept me busy the last few days with various activities and fun times.
Last Friday she took me out to Crystal River to check out the manatees. Noel is currently getting her PhD studying manatees so if anyone's going to know the right places to hang with these huge, chill mammals it's Noel. We kayaked a couple minutes down a canal and out into the river towards one of many manatee sanctuaries. There were a few boats of people hanging out looking at the sea cows. Noel steered us towards a very narrow channel with constant reminders not to whack a manatee with my paddle. It was hard for me to tell the difference between a rock and a manatee...In addition we kept rocking with Noel thinking that it was me off balance even though I kept telling her I was in the middle of the kayak. We managed to make it to the end of the channel before sinking and capsizing! Apparently the kayak had a leak that we managed to fill until it tipped us over. Luckily the water was shallow enough to stand in and clear enough to find our stuff. We were laughing so hard no one bothered to check to see is we were alright. Once we were able to empty the kayak and pack everything back in, on went the snorkeling mask and swimming with the manatees went I. There were only a couple in the area that we were in but they came up really close. There was another man swimming with them that they were very attracted to (his friend said it was because he was so pale!).

Is it a rock? No! It's a manatee!


Happy seeing manatees

Even though the manatees are so large once you see them in the water with you, it's easy to understand that they're some of the least scary animals on earth. I think the cutest thing I saw was a sleeping manatee. When manatees sleep they apparently rest their noses on the sandy bottom and just lay there, kind of like a really large puppy.
Saturday we drove a couple hours south to Clearwater, a beachy area. We spent Saturday hanging around Lido Beach and St. Armands Circle. It felt very La Jolla like.

Lido Beach

Unfortunately for me my long walk to UF campus created a very sore right foot that only allowed me to limp behind Noel for the day. Luckily on Sunday she allowed me to just hang on the beach for the afternoon. We took a ferry to Caladesi Island, rated the top beach in the US.

On our way to Caladesi

The weather was a little too cloudy for me, but we saw dolphins on the horizon as well as armadillos! It was a long drive back to Gainesville last night and Noel, crazy PhD student that she is then went to lab to do some work while I watched the Oscars.
Today after a leisurely morning we went out to La Chua trail not too far outside Gainesville and is Noel's favorite place to go wander. We saw lots of alligators, some little babies and some gigantic 10 footers. The area was super quiet with lots of birds and even wild horses in the distance.

Noel's "little" friend

Today for my last dinner in Florida it was Cuban food. Very tasty!
I'll certainly miss the warmer than Boston weather and Noel's company when I leave tomorrow!!