Fall Campout and then some...

November is a very busy month for us.  I was supposed to fly to Atlanta 2 weekends ago to celebrate my niece's baby shower.  Unfortunately, I caught whatever "bug" was going around in the schools.  I wasn't able to attend, but great pictures were sent to my WiFi picture frame, so I felt I was there.  I was blessed not to have work scheduled for Friday/Monday.  This gave me a full 4 day weekend for recovery which didn't take place until I got an antibiotic on Sunday morning. :(

Then, we celebrated my 50th birthday on Tuesday.  Clif made a delicious steak dinner.  He even baked the cake.  Everything was yummy.

This weekend, we went camping with another couple to Favre Dykes State Park near St. Augustine.  It was overcast most of the time, windy, at times raining, and cool.  But, when you are die hard campers, you deal with the elements, and given a choice, I would rather be cold than hot.  We adventured out on the canoes.  The wind didn't kick up until around 11:00.  So half our time it was really nice, and the other half we had to use our muscles to paddle against the wind.  We were out on the river for 3 hours.  We saw lots of water fowl.  We even saw an osprey with a fish who perched on the branch to eat its lunch.



             Peter and Kim, gliding past us.  We just went under the I-95 overpass near MM298.



If you look closely on the arched branch in front of the brown pine needles, you will see the osprey with its fish.



                                                             An egret. 
We also saw lots of Blue Herons, but they always flew off before I got my camera focused.



We also went hiking to Pellicer Bay (a 2.6 mile roundtrip hike).  In the middle of the trail was a piglet.  We saw 6 wild boar and 8 piglets.  We were grateful they were afraid of us and ran the opposite direction.  Not good for snapping photos, but good that we weren't charged.  Those animals can be MEAN!



 The black shadow between the two tree trunks is an adult boar.  The only shot I could get.  They run way too fast!



We made it to Pellicer Point which overlooks Pellicer Bay. This is a place once inhabited by Native Americans.  As you can see in the background the weather is not to good.  We could hear thunder off in the distance, and you could see rain coming across the bay.  We were 15 minutes from the trail end before it caught up to us and soaked us.  We had fun just the same, and decided it was worth the hike to see the 8 piglets running with their parents.  The way their little ears flopped were just adorable. :)

This week school is out for Thanksgiving break.  I am glad because we are hosting Thanksgiving this year.  It will give me plenty of time to catch up with neglected friendships, and clean the house.  Hopefully, I will have pictures to post of our celebration.  We are expecting around 15 people.