Found Treasures...

So one of my favorite things to do is to find treasures.  Miss Evelyn and I were beach-combing down in the Florida Keys for whatever and we came across an abandoned kayak that was halfway sunk into the sand.  I was STOKED and immediately got to work digging it out of the sand.  Evelyn kept strolling the beach as I struggled to get the sand out of the hull (there were cracks in the kayak where sand had poured in).

    It took about 45 minutes of a good struggle, but I finally got all the sand out and got it floating!

 Evy and I took it for a little paddle out just as the sun was going down.  We passed a few fisherman that were getting their lobster traps ready for the season.  Our newly found kayak had a few leaks, but we managed to make it out to the Florida Bay, where we had a nice clear view of the West.

In my mind, the adventures that are cultivated from nothing but an adventurous and receptive mind are some of the best.

Here was a little reward for the energy that went into salvaging the kayak from the sand...

A beautiful sunset!  We had no means of transporting it back to Miami, so now some lucky person has a kayak to mess around with down in the keys.  Easy come easy go :)

Mister and Misses Manatee :)

    This is a picture from when my girlfriend and I went down to the Florida Keys.  We stayed in a house adjacent to a saltwater canal and one afternoon while sitting on the porch, we looked out and saw some native Manatee (they're also known as sea cows).  I've always had a hankering to swim with these big docile and wonderful creatures and this was it!  They came close to the docks to check out what was going on and we thew on some masks to get a closer look. Unfortunately because they are endangered and very threatened by human activity (boating, etc), you cannot touch or feed these amazing creatures, so we snapped some beautiful shots of them and it was incredible!
   A silly side story...when I first went to choose a license plate from the DMV, I was presented with something silly like 50 options.  After a moment of hesitation, I remembered how much I had always loved the "Save the Manatee" plate growing up as a kid.  Scanning all the plates on the wall, I finally came across the manatee plate.  There was no question once I saw it.  It read: