Kayaking in Tampa

This weekend Todd and I took a much-anticipated road trip down to Tampa, Florida, to rendezvous with our good friends Stephanie and Joe Hadfield, who were on vacation in Florida for a week.

As usual, Todd was a genius. This time he found a great pizza place to stop at for dinner halfway between home and our final destination. We didn't want a whole pizza, since it would sit in the car for four more hours before we could get it into a fridge, so we each ordered a slice plus we split a salad. Imagine my surprise when I opened the pizza box and found two enormous slices! If I put my arms out in front of me, with my elbows on my hips and my fingertips just touching, that is the size of my pizza slice! It was exciting! And, of course, it was too much food for us. ;)

We stayed at MacDill Air Force Base, which was right on the water and cost less than even Motel 6. In the morning, we went to the base marina and rented two double kayaks for the day. We strapped one on top of Tuna and then drove to the base entrance, where we met up with the Hadfields, who have been good friends of ours for many years.

Stephanie and I were freshman roommates at BYU. We have managed to find ways to reunite over the years. It turned out that she and Joe moved to Mountain View, CA just a month before Todd and I moved out there, and they only left a month before we did. We got together for Settlers of Catan and stovetop popcorn nearly every Fast Sunday. Now they are in Utah, and we saw them over Christmas. That's when we made the plan to rendezvous in Florida. We are meant to be friends forever.
We grabbed some food at the commissary, strapped on the second kayak, and then headed to Weeden Natural Preserve, where we had the best kayak experience of our lives to date. The course we followed was a combination of tree-lined alleyways and open water filled with jumping fish apparently called mullets. (That's what Joe says in his blog today.)

We saw pink birds that we thought were flamingos until we got closer, scurrying animals that we were mistakenly convinced must be wombats, big crabs crawling all over the tree roots, and even a couple of rays. The mangroves were incredible - lush trees with thick, rubbery leaves like a magnolia tree growing in the water and roots that claw out at you from the sides.

Todd worked the camera through the entire course and then made it into a video. We hope you enjoy following us on our kayak journey!