We got up and out early enough to rent kayaks at Tarpon Bay at eight. I’d been hoping to do this all week, but getting papa bear and baby bear (moreso papa bear) unhibernated early in the morning is quite an undertaking. The kayaking was awesome! Tarpon Bay Explorers had a nice trail marked out, but it was quite hard. Dan did most of the paddling while I tried to keep Brandt in the boat. He was mostly content to point at birds and skim the water with his hands or feet, but I could tell he really wanted to jump in. He was surprisingly OK in the life jacket (they’ve passed them out in swim class a couple times and he’ll have nothing to do with them).

I had really hoped to see a manatee, but we didn’t have the energy to paddle out to the mouth of the bay. However, on our cycle up to Tarpon Bay we saw an armadillo and a bunny. None of us had seen an armadillo before. I noticed its ears first and thought it was a rabbit while Dan noticed its shell first and thought it was a turtle. Brandt, of course, called it a bird.