I've been thinking that today is the first 'normal' school day for our little Norwood people in some time. Hope the adjustment is an easy one.
The weather channel this morning said Key West had a record rain fall of 1.9 inches yesterday. I can believe it.
Wow! I can't tell you what a wonderful time Jim and I had yesterday with the Lee's. Jim needed to get away from the wet disaster here in the camper and we both just forgot about it for a while.
We all loaded into the Lee's Van for the trip out to a boat basin/swim club area there on Stock Island. This club has a little sandy beach, across a cove from the boat dockage. This is a terrific area for children to play. And, of course, there are the requisite beautiful palm trees with inviting lounge chairs making it a pretty much picture perfect area.
Not only can you see the boats (which Jim likes, of course), you can see out, way out across the water and up the water channel to the ocean. There are sailboat races going on this week and certainly seeing all those sailboats was a spectacular sight.
At the beach area, the club keeps some kayaks out for members use. We were able to get three of the kayaks, Jim in one small one, Walt and Lily in another, and Hillary, Gabby and myself in the third.
As we crossed a boating channel, Hillary cautioned that we may want to 'get across here in a hurry' and we did. The water was pretty flat and paddling was made easy. I must say I'm not sure how much help I was to Hillary in the paddling department!
We headed straight to the mangroves. One we reached the mangroves, Hillary said 'now, we try to hug the edge of the mangroves.' We were able to go into tiny little passages of water within some of the mangroves, and it was a wonderland.
We started looking for treasures and Gabby is good at finding them. First of all, schools of fish, then we saw two starfish. Except, Hillary says they are no longer called starfish, rather, star something else, I forgot.....!!!! This change in name is because starfish are not really fish. Well, who would have thunk it.
Gabby is really the one to jump out of the kayak into the water. The first starfish was seen on the ocean floor, (for my purposes here, I'll use that term) and she tried to get out of the kayak and got caught on some mangrove roots. I pulled her back into the kayak and Hillary jumped out and retrieved the starfish. The starfish were passed around from kayak to kayak for all to see and then we tried to get them back in the water in the spots where we found them.
Winding around and through the mangroves in a kayak, you are at the base level and you can just gaze up, through and beyond the roots and trunks of the mangroves. A simply breathtaking experience.
Of course, I started out of the car with my camera and Hillary and I decided that would not be a good idea. Tipping a kayak is something I could be known for. So, the pictures of the interior of the mangroves will have to wait for another day.
We pulled into a very shallow area (well, most all the areas are shallow - although this area of water was about ankle deep) and had our snack. Hillary kept saying she had crackers, apples, waters, beers, and I kept eating apples and crackers, grinning all the while promising that next trip out Jim and I would bring some food as well.
Then, more meandering. This area was a honey hole for conch shells. And both girls have an eye for spotting treasures in these clear, pristine waters. Gabby pointed out that the grass on the waterbed was turtle glass and then she started finding the conchs. There were two found that did not have conchs in them so they could be keepers. Gabby said good "because, amme, there are two families here, you and dad'n dad'n can have one and we can have one." We studied the conch shells with the conchs in them carefully and gently layed them back in the water. The conch shells were mostly around the roots of the mangroves.
We had explored about as much as we could in this area, so we headed out back across the channel. We had made a big circle around the mangroves so we never 'backtracked', we always had a new adventure around the bend.
Across the channel, again, quickly, and the girls were anxious to play in the pool.
When we got to the pool area, two couples that the Lee's knew arrived. Two more little girls and two little boys. They all played in the pool for a while, then decided to go play along the shoreline and in the sand.
Jim left with Walt. Walt was going back to the house to get sandwiches and snacks for the children (guess I ate all the snacks when we were at the 'secret island' as Gabby called it) and Jim went back to get our car and make a Publix Grocery Store run.
I was able to stay behind with the girls and visit with Hillary and her friends. The children were back and forth from the beach to the pool and THEN, one of the children started playing in the kayaks, and then, let's go on a kayak ride, and then each dad, got in a kayak, a dad and child each in the smaller kayaks and a dad with the remainder of the children in the larger kayak. Lily had said she wanted to be The Captain and sure enough, she found her spot in the very front 'v' of the large kayak and off they went. Too Cute.
Jim got back, picked me up and we left the 'young people' to their families and fun.
Now, back to our current water crisis. As you probably gathered, after the big rain on Monday, the weather turned out to be perfect. Only as we drove back up the keys around 4:00 did we notice the gathering of gray clouds again. Once back at the campground, and looking at our campsite at first glance, it looked like a bunch of vagabonds lived here. Wet towels draped outside in every direction. I immediately got them all together and did a load of laundry at the bathhouse, in the meantime taking my shower. Before the towels had time to dry (takes about 45 minutes for the washing machine, then about 45 minutes for the dryer) the rains came hard and heavy again. Jim pulled the slide back in to hopefully avoid another flooding disaster and I ran back and forth to the bathhouse checking on the towels.
Monday Night is happy hour night at the KOA and needless to say, with the leak, we opted to stay in and keep track of any further leak damage. Seems the good news is that if the slide is in there are no leaks. We kept the slide in all night just in case another gully washer came up that we were not expecting.
On one of my trips back from the laundry room, at the bathhouse, Jim just looked at me and said "I've made a decision" - Well, who knows what he will say next...are we going back to Norwood? is he going to divorce me? The decision was that he was going to pull for Green Bay for the playoffs and ultimately, if they make it, for the Super Bowl. Those of you that know Jim know you really never know where his mind may be wandering away to......
His decision was a relief to me and I just grinned and said "oh, yeah, okay, that sounds good to me!"
So, after a day beginning with a doleful faced Jim, a wet camper and lots of disarray, the day was filled with fun.
How much better can it get?
An unsure Lily with picture taking......on the sandy beach area at the club.
And, Gabby will always stop directly in her tracks when you ask if a picture can be made of her.
The tiny little dots in the water are kayakers that came by. You can pretend that is us as I couldn't take this picture of the Lee's and Huntley's while we were in the water.
Across the beach area at the club. Pretty, isn't it? The pool is up the grassy knoll on the right and the kayaks we rode in would be in the mid right to the picture.
The children and dads getting ready for their kayak trip. It was pretty much mayhem there for a while getting everyone set to go. You can see Lily in the front of the green kayak (she claimed her spot), that's Gabby standing in the sand, and Walt with the red cap getting ready to shove off.
And, the first kayak is off. Again, that's Lily at the helm of the kayak being The Captain.
Got to get the kayak in the right direction!
On Monday Night, back to the reality of a wet camper. As you can see, the slide is in and works pretty well as a foot rest with the sofa folded out!
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