Paddling in Vacationland

What’s the best type of workout there is? The kind that you do because it's fun and it just happens to be good for you. I took a vacation day for Halloween and then remembered I didn't actually have anything to do all day, so I went paddleboarding. It's been a couple months since I've been out so it was way past due!

I don't go out on the bay when I'm by myself, so I stuck to the inlets. There are occasional dolphins and manatees swimming through, but I didn't see any this time. The reason I stick to the inlets? Once we took the kids out in kayaks just a bit past the mouth of the bay and saw a dolphin, oh no wait that is NOT a dolphin fin, it's a shark fin. Which was super cool until it started following the kayak my boyfriend and son where in. It just looked and swam off but if that happened to me on a paddleboard I have little doubt I'd panic and fall off.

Anyway, one of the awesome things about living in Florida is that you can turn a vacation day into an actual vacation without any effort at all. I know people who think it's too humid... too dangerous because of hurricanes... too whatever. Maybe they meant too awesome?

There are a couple small beaches to stop at along the way.

 This is my favorite area to paddle in, when it's low tide like this time you can walk around and see tons of little fish, huge birds, and crabs running around.  If it's high tide you can paddle through lots of little pathways (are they paths if it's on water?) which always makes me feel like I'm far, far away from civilization, which is actually a few minutes away.


Although I didn't see anything big I did see a bunch of rays and a bald eagle!  This is only the second eagle I've seen outside of a zoo so I think its super-cool.

The rays are color-disguised, I usually only notice them when they take off, but you can still see him in the picture if you really look.

The bad thing about paddleboarding?  I have so much fun I don't notice I'm worn out until I get back.  That board is magically a whole lot heavier trying to put it on the car to bring it home than it is when I leave in the morning!