How I Spent my Easter Vacation

I had a delightful visit with the parental units this past weekend. Nathan had a paper and a test due, as well as a heavy lifting job, so he stayed at home. Friday night was a great meal out and Sunday we went to Easter services, I took a kayak trip around Munyon Island, and we had Easter dinner, dressed up. Mom and I also went downtown to the Norton Gallery to see a Georgia O'Keefe exhibit on Saturday. They wouldn't let me take photos of that, though! Saturday night was Herman McRae's ribs. mmmmm... Today, before I left mom and I did the water aerobics class. I was tired! She did just fine and is stronger than ever! She also taught me a yarn- over knitting stitch I have been trying to understand and she gave me her table sewing machine.

I have been looking forward to a kayak trip to Munyon Island since the last time I tried to get there during low tide! Duh! This time high tide was at noon which was very convenient. I put in by the John D. MacArthur bridge (not an official launch, mind you) and zipped over to Munyon.

I took the yellow boat since it is very good with waves and is stable when being tossed about. However, on the inter coastal side I tried to beach and forgot about the powerboat waves. They broke over the stern of my boat and I almost swamped. The camera got a little damp. And uh, well, it still takes excellent photos, but I do now have a slight operations problem I haven't figured out how to correct!

At any rate, I traveled south around the Island and beached on the lee side which had no wave problems. Munyon is very interesting just in terms of its history. It once housed a hermit named Rodgers who lived in a tent in the late 1800's and caught turtles for a living. The island was sold to the Pitts family in 1892, who built a home and covered the island with fruit trees. Munyon bought it in 1901 and erected a hotel spa, The Hotel Hygeia. It burned in 1917 and was then only inhabited by critters. It was used as a dredging drop and the size of the island doubled. MacArthur then incorporated it into his park. It has footpaths all through it and a couple of picnic pavilions. Wild Florida in the midst of all that civilization!