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Mangrove Tunnel

I normally don’t write while Im on the plane but I also don’t normally fly at normal times. A 5 pm flight is the perfect time to get some blogging done in the air!

The last two days of my trip were packed and awesome. I had such a great time with a great friend and it was so sad to leave especially after spending the last few hours exploring the city of St. Petersburg which will hopefully be my new home in the next year! Its such a cute city that is reminiscent of my favorite city, Milwaukee. I could see myself living there for sure :)

 Yesterday, we hiked Emerson Point preserve with the dog and pretty much had the place to ourselves! Seeing all the mangroves made me so happy. They are such a cool plant with their drop roots and snorkel roots! Wah! Also, lots of wildlife and history. A lot of the parks that we went to had cut-outs of people just scattered throughout and they startled me on more than one occasion…

 Then we rented kayaks in Robinson’s preserve! Huck reluctantly went on the kayak. We both got singles. Going through the mangroves was really neat. There was a mangrove tunnel that we had to go through and there were herons hanging out. We tried to be quiet as we ducked and weaves through the drop roots of the red mangroves. Our kayak out to the lookout was very relaxing. The sun poked out every once in awhile and the gentle wind was at our back. We paddled and coasted, taking in our mangrove surroundings. Huck was great entertainment for his first time on a boat. He looked concerned for my safety, didn’t always have the best balance and whined to get off the boat, not being a huge fan of water.

 Two hours later, we made it to the tower lookout. Because Florida is so flat, we were able to see forever, 360 degrees. After taking some silly panorama pictures, we hopped back on the boats, and noticed that the wind had picked up a little bit…
 It had picked up a LOT making huge ripples in the water and making it insanely difficult to paddle. My whole upper body was aching not even 30 minutes into the ride back. There were a few thing that made the ride tollerable, one being the osprey we saw in a tree munching on a fish! The other was that on the ride back, Huck became more adventurous and decided to make a run (or swim) to shore not once but twice and we had to wait patiently for him to come back out to us. Good thing he listens really well!


After an hour and a half of paddling so hard that I thought my arms would fall off, we made it back to the mangrove tunnel! We relaxed for a bit holding onto the drop roots and at one point Huck had decided it would be a good idea to put his front legs on my boat and keep his back legs on the other boat. When the boats slowly started to separate, Huck had no idea what to do and fell in! I was quick to grab his adorable little lifejacket and pull him onto my boat.



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Location: Manatee County, FL, USA

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