Florida: Swamps, Beaches, Gators and Poster Beds

I began the new year with a week in Florida which was just what I needed to thin my blood from a few months of Canadian winter. I know I haven't posted anything since the summer mainly because I had been shoulder deep in my studies. Now that I am back in Asia and enjoying some time to regroup, I thought I should get caught up. This trip was a nice transition from the snowbound tundra of Southwestern Ontario to the neonbound coast of Southeastern Korea.

As this guy was stretching his wings and soaking up the winter sun (Floridians kept using the word winter, it was kinda weird as they said it while wearing shorts and t-shirts), I was floating down a lazy stream in a canoe and dodging all kinds of natural no no's...

On the beach, this magnificent hotel somehow didn't stand out. This is from St. Pete's and a place called Passo-Grille.

No one was swimming as the water was apparently too cold. But it was still too hot for a t-shirt! I would have gone for it, but this sign scared me off.

Expert paddling techniques courtesy of 5 summers with the YMCA camp Stephens in Kenora.

These pictures were taken from a 2 hour canoe trip through a state park 20 minutes north of Tampa.

When I was a kid, I asked for a puppy and my folks gave me a turtle. Had I any idea my little Yurtle could have grown up to be a wild untamed beast like these two here, I might have given it a more intriguing name...I think I called it Chris.

We spotted 7 gators...awesome!

All of the vultures were hanging out right at the landing where we launched our canoes. They always seem to congregate where human activity is the most frequent. There is something to be said here about that...

This is a real picture I really took at a real place. Yes, you can rent a bed, four poster no less, to lounge about in on the beach.