Our own private island...or not

Today we ventured out to Bahia Honda State Park, it was our day for kayaking and it sure was a beautiful day. Our group, with four double kayaks and two single kayaks, the lucky winners of the scavenger hunt, went out into the ocean and paddled our way staying quite close to shore (who wants to get lost in the middle of the ocean? Not me!). We paddled for about forty minutes and decided that we wanted to go for a swim, we were just getting too hot to handle! Eventually we found a patch of land that we thought was a good place to leave the kayaks and go for a much needed dip in the water. We left our boats in the sand and hopped in the water. We decided to name our area Osprey Island.

Osprey Island

We were enjoying each other's company, laughing, relaxing and having a great time when suddenly, we were interrupted! A man on a golf cart came shooting down the road that was opposite us and began shouting at us to move our kayaks! Apparently Osprey Island was an actual important bird nesting area...oops. Immediately we vacated the area and headed to a sand bar that was not too far from the former Osprey Island. We called this stretch of land Mermaid's Bathtub. The water was so clear and warm. We were enjoying our first and last true moments of relaxation and luckily we were not violating any rules!

Mermaid's Bathtub

 There we saw tons of merman's shaving brush, a couple of fish swimming around us and even a pod of small dolphins! They got incredibly close to us but all we could see were their small fins peeking through the surface. It was still great to see them and watch them for a bit before they disappeared. Dom was the only one snorkeling this time around while the rest of us sat in the sand and talked about our the trip, just enjoying each other's company. Eventually Dom came back over to us with a glass bottle in hand. It was in perfect condition except for a few creatures attached to it. As you can see from the photo the message "please don't litter" was embossed on the bottle.

Message on a bottle

Most bottles I've seen either say don't litter, please recycle or have the picture that shows a little man putting a bottle in a recycling bin. At least this bottle was trying to be polite! Clearly someone wasn't paying attention to their trash and this bottle ended in the ocean. I'm glad Dom found it before it possibly caused harm to any animals! We left our little resting area at about 2:00 pm, taking the bottle with us and made our way back to the place we got the kayaks. The bottle found a new home in the recycling bin and all was well! Overall we had a good experience kayaking in the ocean, something many of us had never done before! I hope I can do it again one day!
To learn more about Bahia Honda check this out
To find out more about Florida's bird species and where they like to nest click here